The Ugly Duckling

I just got a new job, very different from what I've done before. I'm excited, exhilarated at being given the opportunity to do this job.

I was given an assignment by my manager a few days ago. My colleague is a young man of 26. We had a little brainstorming session. After that I had to record and type a proposal for this project. I sent it to my colleague and manager. He then sat down and started to re-write and added so much more ideas and material to my simple proposal. I am pleasantly surprise at his wealth of experience and knowledge which I lack despite my age. He has been in the field. I discovered, in Learning, you can never tell from who you will receive your next lesson. Even someone who is a decade younger than you. So for now, just bite my humble pie, and be open enough to accept and absorb.

Your Guru can come in any form or shape. You can learn from a baby, a child, an animal, a beggar, a drunkard when he is sober, even an ant. Be curious!

“I believe the recipe for happiness to be just enough money to pay the monthly bills you acquire, a little surplus to give you confidence, a little too much work each day, enthusiasm for your work, a substantial share of good health, a couple of real friends and a wife and children to share life's beauty with you.” -- J. Kenfield Morley

"I am more and more convinced that our happiness or our unhappiness depends far more on the way we meet the events of life than on the nature of those events themselves." -- Karl Wilhelm Von Humboldt

"We could never learn to be brave and patient if there were only joy in the world." -- Helen Keller

"You will find yourself refreshed by the presence of cheerful people. Why not make earnest effort to confer that pleasure on others? Half the battle is gained if you never allow yourself to say anything gloomy." -- Lydia M. Child

"Your hopes, dreams and aspirations are legitimate. They are trying to take you airborne, above the clouds, above the storms, if you only let them." -- William James

“Hope is the companion of power, and mother of success; for who so hopes strongly has within him the gift of miracles.” -- Samuel Smiles

"Expect to have hope rekindled. Expect your prayers to be answered in wondrous ways. The dry seasons in life do not last. The spring rains will come again." -- Sarah Ban Breathnach

"Hope is the feeling we have that the feeling we have is not permanent." -- Mignon McLaughlin

I would never trade my amazing friends, my wonderful life, and my loving family for less grey hair or a flatter belly. As I've aged, I've become kinder to myself and less critical of myself. I've become my own friend. I don't chide myself for eating that extra cookie, or for not making my bed,or for buying that silly cement gecko on my patio. I am entitled to a treat, to be messy, to be extravagant.
I have seen too many dear friends leave this world too soon before they understood the great freedom that comes with ageing.
Whose business is it if I choose to read or play on the computer until 4am and sleep until noon? I will dance with myself to those 40, 60, & 70's tune, and at the same time weep over a lost one.
I will walk the beach in a swim suit that is stretched over a bulging body, and will dive into the waves with abandon if I choose to, despite the pitying glances from the jet set.
They too, will get old. I know I am sometimes forgetful. But there again, some of life is just as well forgotten. And I eventually remember the important things.
Sure over the years my heart has been broken. How can your heart not break when you lose a loved one, or when a child suffers, or even when somebody's beloved pet gets hit by a car? But broken hearts are what give us strength and understanding and compassion. A heart never broeken is pristine and sterile and will never know the joy of being imperfect.
I am so blessed to have live long enough to have my hair turning grey and to have my youthful laughs be forever etched into deep groooves on my face. So many have never laughed, and so many have died before their hair could turn silver.
As you get older, it is easier to be positive. You care less about what other people think. I don'[t question myself anymore. i've even earned the right to be wrong.
So, to answer your question, I like being old. It has set me free. I like the person I have become. I am not going to live forever, but while I am still here, I will not wast time lamenting what could have been, or worrying about what will be. And I shall eat dessert every single day (if i feel like it).

Source: Newletter Sage, Penang - A Senior Citizens clubs, my mum is a member.