This Thanksgiving, my nephew took a photo of my 85-year-old mother.
He sent it to me and I immediately thought about #lifegoals. Not just because she is my mother.
“Gran,” as her 12 grandchildren call her, is the happiest and busiest person I know. She volunteers at a day care in a retirement community where she runs the library, is in two bridge groups, walks several miles a day, attends dance classes with remote Nia, and reads voraciously. , I watch a fun movie almost every night. Good joke. She became a widow about five years ago and still sometimes talks to her father while preparing dinner. Although she lives independently, she doesn’t really care if her father can hear her. She has voted in every election she is eligible to vote in, and she reads several newspapers every day. She loves her family more than anything, she still sees her high school friends every week, and she believes we are all put on this earth to make it a better place. I strongly believe that
Like me, she has lived a blessed life, but not without great sadness. She lost her children, husband, siblings, parents, and many of her friends. She married me a month after graduating from college and she welcomed me two years later. We lived in Germany because her father was in the military. Moving her family every few years, she finally settled in the same place when she was in her 40s. She raised her four children. She has two graduate degrees and has worked as a librarian for over 40 years.
When I was young and struggling with the belief that the world sucked, my mother’s optimism drove me crazy. I’m not jealous of her, but Pollyanna. She chooses not to take issue with the cruelty and misanthropy of others. “I love my family,” she said. Or, “You can’t know the inner workings of another person’s life.” She was and is too busy living to let the slings and arrows of her life slow her down. (And yes, I know plenty of people whose lives are unbearable. I’m not one of them, so I can have something other than survival as my goal in life.)
Now that I am approaching old age, my mother’s way of life is my #lifegoal. I am grateful for my relationships and value them above almost everything else. I try to laugh at life instead of getting frustrated. I walk every day and thank my body for all its hard work. I hug everyone I can. I say “I love you” as often as I can. I would rather volunteer, donate, and vote than debate and despair. I follow Crash Davis’ advice and try to end each day like my mom. ” …I’m happy just to be here.That’s what my mother has been doing for the past 85-plus years, and oh my goodness, she seems to me like the most enviable person I know.
what about you? Who is your role model? Why?