Because each and everyone of us is aging no matter whether we are 40 or 70, one of the most important categories of this blog site is the “Wisdom” category because it will often deal with our attitudes on aging.

Most of us have heard the phrase that what happens to us with life  circumstances is 80% the result of our attitude toward those experiences and only 20% is actually the result of those life experiences. In other words, attitude is the key to most all of life and for sure to aging!

All of us will age, are aging, and have aged. The very big question is what are we thinking about our aging? Are we embracing aging as an inevitable fact of life or are we moaning and groaning about every new wrinkle?

Personally, I hate new wrinkles, seeing my saggy thighs if I go a week or more without exercise when, in past ages, it didn’t show up nearly as quickly. But now, holy cow, one big week-end of eating whatevers and my tummy rolls have had babies!

No, I do not love these signs of where I actually am in life. I have to fight my attitude all the time.

One summer while visiting my son and wife, one of their three children, Brooke, then age four, asked me on the way to the swimming pool, “Mimi, why do old people get crinkley?” I answered rather flatly, “I do not know”. Then the kicker was her next statement, “well Bob-Bob isn’t crinkley”.

Ouch! She was obviously saying only Mimi was crinkley. Then, to put salt in the wound, we arrive at the pool where there are all these beautiful and very trim young mothers in the prime of their beauty. I really had to fight my thoughts regarding my body that day versus their bodies and how quickly the years have taken away my youthful-looking physical shape. Having to color my hair OFTEN, seeing neck and skin crepe, and knowing EVERYTHING I eat now has consequences either good or bad.

Why wouldn’t this be happening to me? Am I exempt from what everyone else is experiencing? No, of course not. I am just another sixty something woman who can CHOOSE to deal with it all in a positive way or I can CHOOSE to obsess about each new aging issue.

I CHOOSE to embrace aging with the best of my effort, time, and most of all, my attitude.

Truth be told, I love my stage of life. My “children” are launched, I have 9 amazingly wonderful grandchildren. I don’t have to prove who I am to anyone anymore. Bob-Bob and I are accepting what we can and cannot do. My family and my friends mean more to me now than at any other time in my life.

And you, my dear over fifty year old, are now part of what means so much to me. You have become what I “obsess about” as I think constantly how I can relate to you and share with you the challenges along with all the joys of aging.

Let’s work on our attitudes towards aging together helping each other discover new solutions to issues but, above all, helping each other change our attitudes on aging.

As we do, I firmly believe, we will change the way America ages.

Living and loving life together,

Mitzi