Post 64: Eighty Years Young!

Eighty Years: October 1944 – October 2024

AN ORDINARY LIFE

So, here I am; officially eight decades on
Now old enough to contemplate what’s gone
The luck to live an ordinary life
The bliss of being loved by my true lover
The fulfilment of that life as Wife and Mother
With knowledge that I would not choose another

And now, amazingly, that I have reached four score
My instinct and desire is geared to wanting more
Despite the aches and pains that come with age
I’m eager and prepared to turn the page
To face whatever’s coming down the line
And treat each extra year as extra time!

 

 

 

It occurs to me that I have already expressed these opinions in Post 61 ‘Growing Old Gratefully‘ which contains the poem ‘A Goldilocks Grandma’. So, I must try and avoid an action that comes with increasing age; that of repeating myself!

That said, I am more and more aware of the luck of being born in 1944, in this country of the UK. When I see world news on ubiquitous media, where other eighty year olds have endured repeated displacement and death, caused by war and old factions re-opening all over Europe and the Globe, I almost feel guilty to be comfortably ensconced in our ‘perfect place’ in wild west Wales; secure in the knowledge that the tank and small arms fire, emanating from the Ministry of Defence firing range not far away from here, is not meant for me and mine.

We will not know the trauma of the undeserved destruction being meted out to those innocents abroad; or dread the sound of an incoming missile bent on killing, maiming, and flattening your home and neighbourhood; or have to watch our children suffering hunger and displacement; or experiencing the misery of burying family and friends, murdered before their allotted time has run it’s course.

But, perhaps I shouldn’t dwell on the negatives. I’m still hoping that my unquenchable optimism will be justified. Despite the past history of my eighty years, I still have hope, bordering on conviction, that the world will have to come to it’s senses and tackle climate change, nationalistic hatred, downgraded childhood and, to my mind the most important of all, the increasing imbalance between the globally rich and poor.

So I will finish with another repeat; a poem reflects my ‘glass half full’ mentality

GLOOM IS GOOD!

I’m still an optimist, but why
These days it’s hard to justify
Is negative thought the new ‘right’ way?
If the only way to go is up
You can’t be disappointed
Is what it seems to say

So, is hope just a diversion
To facing up to the gloom
Are we deluded if we have concluded
That all will be well sometime soon

But I’m too old to falter now
From hopeful thought, and that somehow
This world will finally muddle through
And climb out of this global stew

So, happy future one and all
And, though it will be close to call
I think we’ll make it in the end
Let optimism reign my friends!