Getting My Kicks!
In my job as a clinical mental health counselor, age is a familiar topic. Lots of folks have anxiety around their age; they’ll say that time is slipping by, that they miss their youth, that “I can’t believe I’m ___ (plug in your age here).”
All of which is a preface to me saying: “Holy s—, I’m 66.”
Now, 66 may not represent a milestone birthday, but for me it’s a number with significance. To wit:
When I lived in Southern California after college, I lived for a little over a year on Route 66 in Pomona, California. I loved getting home after work and walking out to the pool with a book and a cold beverage. I spent some time recently looking for that apartment complex using Google maps to no avail; I think it got swallowed by SoCal growth.
In the nearly two decades I’ve lived in my house, my Americana-styled dining room has been filled with Route 66 images, including a 1,000-piece jigsaw puzzle of it that my wife, Terrie, and I completed and a treasured photo I took more than 20 years ago while in Arizona (the photo at the bottom of this blog).
In the two-week period ending on my birthday (Aug. 29), I saw 66 clients.
I haven’t counted, but 66 could be the number of copies of my novel, Unwrapping, sold through my website since I continue to struggle with the publishing company to have the book properly uploaded and made available for the mass websites such as Bookshop.org, Barnes & Noble and Amazon. Y’all can help me change that number by clicking the link (Yup, shameless plug in a blog that has nothing to do with the book, but it did get published this year).
What does this all mean? Absolutely nothing. I may have gotten you to read this blog, but I actually don't have anything particularly profound to share.
I often tell my clients who raise the subject that age is a state of mind. Even if you’re feeling your age, you don’t have to act your age. And if you feel as I do–not much different today than when I was living in Pomona–then why worry about your age?
Should we make concessions to our age? Sure, if they help. I take two types of blood pressure meds and a cholesterol med, I don’t hesitate to make a doctor’s appointment if I see or feel something weird on or in me, and Terrie will be the first to confirm I’m usually falling asleep on the couch by 10 p.m. latest.
But I also get up daily at 5 a.m. (no alarm clock needed), do a vigorous cardio and strength and resistance workout two to three times a week (something I definitely did not do in my younger years), and for the first extended period of my life feel pretty comfortable about maintaining a generally healthy lifestyle.
So here’s to 66. May it be as fulfilling as 65 and last the full 365. Cheers!
Photo taken Summer 2003, Kingman, Arizona