My upcoming birthday will catapult me into a new decade. I remember my first such birthday: age 10, requiring all of the fingers to demonstrate. We had just moved to a new house, where the larger room for my sister and me seemed intertwined with my impressive double-digit age.
I have enjoyed all the decade-birthdays since. Still, this one feels different. I’ve been ruminating about it for almost a year, resolving to “live in the moment.” This resolution has taken me in some interesting directions.
I was at a playground watching my granddaughter with my sister-in-law, Marie. As we chatted, I decided to swing on the monkey bars – my favorite outdoor apparatus in grade school. Suffice it to say I could not even hang on the first bar long enough to swing to the second, much less complete a pass end to end. I was a little indignant: I should at least be able to hold on and hang by my hands, I figured. That’s the moment I vowed to install a chin-up bar in my bathroom and complete one chin-up by my birthday.
I did buy the bar, and I did install it all by myself, which I think is a pretty good start. I worked myself up to about half a chin-up before some hitch in my schedule caused me to forgot about it completely. I started anew a couple weeks ago, but I’m only now back to being able to pull myself up about halfway.
Another resolution, made in the moment I contemplated ordering a skirt in a bigger size, was a (yawn) weight-loss resolution. I conveniently forget what weight I wanted to achieve by my birthday, but the number on the scale now is certainly not it. Truth be told, I have worked on enjoying myself this year, and been successful at that. Reflected on the doctor’s scale, I teeter between “normal” and “overweight.” Okay, so I’ve tottered into overweight. But last month I read about the meta-study that surprised researchers by indicating that overweight people actually live a little longer than people who are underweight, normal, or obese. Maybe we’re happier when we don’t deny ourselves an occasional well-deserved cookie or two.
Then there’s the whole colonoscopy thing. My mom used to wash my mouth out with soap for using “potty talk,” but times have changed. It’s not every day you get to follow Starvation Day with Spill Your Bowels night and then show up the next morning to display the results to strangers on a big screen. I mentioned to a friend that I was scheduled for this old age (age old) ritual. She said she found it fascinating to watch the screen as the camera traveled up her colon. She’s a geologist, so maybe it looked like folded sedimentary rock or smooth stream beds.
My results were good, so I earned a ten-year pass until my next test. That makes up for failing my self-imposed chin-up test. And, yes, the colonoscopy was pretty interesting.
I’ve had one other great success in my “live in the moment” campaign. After a friend told me about her fencing hobby, I recalled how much I enjoyed this sport in college. It’s one of the few sports to appear in every Olympics since 1896, though that pre-dates my college years. So I googled it up and found a fencing club downtown. The club manager also coaches the university team, and he is fabulous.
The class has been a blast – 30 or so of us ranging in age from squeaky-voiced ten-year-old boys to teen girls and boys to a half-dozen of us who groan after our knees have been in a squat position more than a few minutes.
The first couple of weeks were purely footwork drills, after which we added hand positions. When we finally earned our right to hold the sword, I sparred and found my muscle memory came to the rescue somewhat. I remembered what I enjoyed about fencing: that size isn’t necessarily an advantage. My smaller target sometimes compensated for my shorter arms. A successful “touch” against a large man was pretty satisfying.
What’s in a decade? Whatever age you’re approaching is a good excuse to look back and look forward. After appreciating how far you’ve come and site the road ahead, take some time to be in the moment. Most of us are allotted only ten decades, if genes and luck are with us. Appreciate what’s special about where you are now. On guard!
Karen Telleen-Lawton serves seniors and pre-seniors as the Principal of Decisive Path Fee-Only Financial Advisory in Santa Barbara, California (http://www.DecisivePath.com). You can reach her with your financial planning questions at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .