The ideal body type today for men has become more muscular and bulked up.  The perfect man is seen with narrow waist, six-pack or washboard abs, muscular shoulders and bulging biceps.  This attention has been good for gym memberships and manufacturers of bodybuilding machines.  It has also been good for those of us who endure a generous waistline.

It has not been good for those who have dedicated themselves not only to develop muscles, but also obsess to obtain a perfect body, perhaps going on to unhealthy and dangerous behaviors including steroid and substance abuse. 

Low self-esteem has been found to be a more likely cause of bulk building than the pursuit of health.  The perceived reaction to the future perfect body drives that person to continuously work out, and the social isolation that results is a situation they are used to. 

The problem starts with being dissatisfied with their body image, and they see bulking up as a means of social acceptance.

What they do not see is that people relate to them through their confidence and personality.  What they do not see is there is no one ideal shape or size for all.

Getting in shape is a great goal.  Exercise and diet are still the only healthy way to fitness.

The world is filled with people of all shapes and sizes.  Relationships are built on compatibility between people.  How much time would we spend with a person who had a perfect body and no personality?

While confidence is a major aspect of personality, and toning our body through normal exercise and diet may increase our self-confidence, getting to the point of a healthy body should be the goal. 

Moderation is key.  We should learn when to stop as well as when to start. 

Live a vital life. 

Now if you work for an employer, frequent any number of retail businesses, you will have to adjust to their hours.

To many of us who have employers, we arrive the first thing in the am, work until noon, have lunch and return to the battle when our minds are telling us to rest.  We struggle to stay awake, let alone produce.  Later in the afternoon, our brains partially return to a production state, but it is compromised, because there are still many of those little synapses left unsorted and uncategorized. 

Now this is OK for most employers, since they don’t require a great deal of brainpower to perform the job we’ve been hired for, and there are always those databases that protect any loss of information and are sorted and categorized on a regular basis. 

And we do it because we need the money.    

But what is our internal clock saying? 

I like to get up early, get a bunch of work done, have lunch, ‘veg’ out for a couple of hours watching old movies and feeling really delicious about not being a solid citizen.

In the mid-afternoon, my guilt takes over and I hurry back to the computer with my fresh cup of coffee, crank up the guilt for the two hours I stole and put in some of my best work. 

I will continue this until the guilt complex subsides or I have accomplished what I set out to do.  Then I will have dinner with the family and the evening will wind down until my body tells me to shut off and go to bed. 

During the midday meal and the following rest period , and the evening meal and the daily wind-down, I handle no intense thoughts except those that might pop up and I write down for future handling.

Now if I have a deadline of course, I will try to fit it into the hours I am actually working, but if necessary, I will annoy the family by sticking to the job until it is done. 

I survived for many years working for an employer and doing my best to align my body energy tides with the employer’s work schedule.  The major detour was with the after-lunch period.  There was time to eat but not to rest. 

As I became aware of my energy tides, I tried to arrange my day with easier jobs scheduled after the lunch break.  It also helped to have a light lunch so all my blood did not flow from my brain to focus on digesting.  

 The point here is that I learned my energy peaks in the early morning with the hopes of accomplishing my game plan during the day.  Then it starts to wind down and has to be replenished with a meal and a break in the action when my mind goes in for its daily refresher, when I can imagine all those little synapses that were fired up are being sorted and categorized. 

My energy peaks again in the afternoon, when I work feverishly to finish my goals for the day.  The motivation here is the deadline.  A wise man once said something like “there is nothing like an impending tsunami to make you work faster.”

Once I learned the rhythms, I adapted my ‘have to’ schedule as closely as possible and to economize on my energy.  I listen to and work with my body using my high-energy periods to produce the most and pull back when my energy is low. 

 Live a vital life.

Next to go is exercise.  We think we can use that extra time to knock off some of those tasks on our plate.  But without the exercise keeping our bodies regulated, our metabolism slows, we tire faster, tasks take longer, and we feel like we are moving through molasses. 

Rest and activity are our bodies’ prime stress relievers.  Without time spent exercising to keep us sharp and tuned, and time spent sleeping to repair our bodies and realign our minds, stress piles up, resulting in more frustration and anger, the great killer. 

Anger a killer?  Studies show that stress and anger can cascade our bodies into life-threatening states, raising blood pressure, causing headaches and back pain, stomach and colon trouble, and perhaps even embolisms and strokes. 

The best course is to avoid the stress in the first place.  But many times, it finds us, in the form of loss of personal control over our lives or our jobs, facing financial hardship, loss of a loved one or potential loss if they are seriously ill or in the military and deployed to a danger zone.  The reasons are many. 

If we are the caregiver or just the one responsible for keeping things running, we must remember that we can’t do that job if we are sick.  It is our responsibility to deal with both the situation and the stress, so we should protect ourselves and not feel guilty about taking some personal time. 

And how do we do that?  The first two methods we can easily guess. 

Get enough sleep and rest.  We know we have enough sleep if we wake up without an alarm, even if we lay in bed for a short time planning our day.  How much sleep?  As much as it takes.  Some people can get by on six hours sleep and others need nine.  Experiment with the length and don’t cheat.  If we feel we can’t fall sleep, pretend.  Lay still with eyes closed, clear the mind, and sleep will come.  The reason counting sheep works is because it is boring. 

Exercise; work out; walk in the sun.  Fresh air and sunshine are miracles of stress relief. Find an activity to enjoy that will take the place of the worry and stress for a short time.   

Take one thing at a time.  When many things are hitting us at once, it is like a hurricane.  Anyone would just cover up under an onslaught.  Break big projects into smaller tasks, stay focused and finish one thing or reach a checkpoint before starting another.  

Learn to say “no” to requests if they interfere with the main task.  If we have no time to catch up now, it will get worse with more responsibility.  Turn the tables.  Ask for help.  There are always small chores that steal our time but can be done by anyone.  People will respond to our calls for help if they see we are buckling under the pressure. 

We should share our feelings.  Letting it out decreases the pressure level.  Two people sharing feelings halve the pressure.  We all have others in our circle of friends, family and associates who share their feelings when they are in a stressful situation.  

If you don’t have someone you can confide in, get someone.  Build a relationship of trust with another by sharing your experience and being a good listener when they share theirs.  Join a mutual support group. 

Take time during the day to calm down and take a time out.  Power naps or quiet “do not disturb” meditations of 20 minutes resets our system. 

There is no easy solution to the stress many of us deal with on a daily basis.  We do the best we can, we go as far as we can, and should be satisfied with that. 

We know we would do more if we could. 

Live a vital life.

The glum faces of Team USA impressed me as they were receiving their silver medals.  Each of them looked like they would never play hockey again.  Later, during the closing ceremonies, they seemed in better mood, but the initial letdown of losing after trying so hard showed on their faces. 

Looking on without the emotional involvement of the practices and playing six intense games in 13 days, I could idealistically ask why they were so glum when they had proven they were the second best hockey team in the world. 

And I get stuck on the words, “second best.”

Team USA did not want second best, they wanted “best.”  In preliminary play, they actually beat Team Canada, and so they thought they could actually do it.  And they did come within an inch of achieving that goal. 

Team Canada had them down by two goals, when Team USA scored their first goal twelve minutes into the second period, and the tying goal with 25 seconds left in regulation play. 

Needless to say, that’s when emotions peaked. 

Going into overtime with four skaters and a goaltender playing “sudden death” their nerves must have been like violin strings – can’t make a mistake …

But fortune went to Team Canada, when their player found the puck almost unexpectedly near his stick, and in his own words, I just hit it in the direction of the net.  And it went in. 

Make no mistake; the win could have gone either way.  

Neither team was second best.  They were each at their personal best.  Team USA played as well as Team Canada, but opportunity came first to the Canadian team. 

And therein lies the lesson for us.  Life is like that.

We prepare to the best of our ability for an event, a job or career.  We perform our personal best, but someone else is a razor-thin line better or seizes an opportunity and they win the job, the place first in line, and we are “second best.”  We feel the disappointment intensely. 

But winners pick themselves up, improve their skills and move on to the next opportunity. 

Winners are never “second best” except in a particular circumstance or event.  They will never be “second best” in their own minds.

They are “best” somewhere, and often in many places, and they continue to practice and play the game until the world sees that they are the “best” as well. 

Let’s make it personal for ourselves.  Let’s never settle for “second best. 

Live a vital life.

Many of us follow conventional wisdom and gather together with friends and others on the eve of the New Year to review all the ways in which we are deficient as successful people.  We are unsuccessful for a variety of reasons, and perhaps after a few drinks loosened our tongues, we admitted our shortcomings and resolved to bring our scores up to par. 

Whether we vocalized them to friends or simply admitted them to ourselves, we made a lot of really ambitious promises.  As the first month of the New Year played out, we realized we either have no intention or are incapable of keeping those promises. 

So why can’t we keep those promises to ourselves? 

For one, the guardian of the promises is us, an easy taskmaster; quick to inject reasons for delay and quick to forgive compliance. 

For another, the resolutions are poorly thought out and for a third reason they generally require us to be someone we are not. 

Sooner or later we will realize that we don’t do well with major changes in direction, even if it is resolved with the deepest intention. 

Habits, as someone once described, are developed in the manner of a silken thread being woven into a cord.  The thread becomes thicker and thicker with each occurrence acting as a reinforcement, until it thickens into a Gordian knot. 

Now this is a good thing for good habits, but bad for those habits not so good.

The Gordian knot of legend was made so complex, that no one could undo it.  Alexander the Great tried and could not, so he cut it in two with a single blow from his sword. 

Now cutting a Gordian knot of habit or lifestyle with a single blow is romantic but not practical for most of us unless it involves having surgery. 

In reality we need to change things on a much smaller scale.

We won’t do well and shouldn’t try to change our life in a single day or single week or single month.  What we need is a series of fresh starts and modest changes.  Small things we can change are very important. 

Instead of seeing how far away the end is on our huge projects, we need to break them into smaller projects.  These smaller projects can be constantly restarted if necessary, moving forward in small increments and needing less and less work to complete. 

Constant moving forward in small increments means constant accomplishment. 

Two examples we may resolve are quitting smoking and weight loss.  Many of us want to quit smoking for a number of reasons, but the process of leaving the addiction is doomed to failure without a plan, and maybe some help.

What if we counted our number of smokes in a day, and reduced it by one every week, and smoked only half?  It’s just an idea.  And if we slipped back to a higher level, it probably would be fewer than when we started.   

Don’t focus on failure, just restart from the new level. 

In the area of weight loss, many of us feel we must lose tons of weight.  It is overwhelming just to think about it.  But what if the number was only down to the next five-pound mark on the scale?  That wouldn’t be too bad.  The most we have to lose will be five pounds.  Once we are solid at that level we can restart and focus on the next level. 

A word of caution here.  We all know that diet and exercise in combination will bring us to our goal, but starvation denies us the fuel to burn calories.  We have no energy, we lose muscle mass, and our adaptable body becomes scrawny and learns to live on virtually nothing. 

In my early college days, I could have earned a PhD in cramming techniques.  I really believed I could learn a foreign language in three days.  But life is a great teacher, and eventually I got the “plan ahead” concept right.   

By embracing the “plan ahead” concept and focusing on small changes and adjustments to our lifestyles every day, we can conquer huge goals. 

And our “small goal” achievements will tell us when we should adjust goals up or down.

This method is great news for the next New Years party.  We will not have to make resolutions we have no plan for and no intention of keeping.  We will know that we have been resolving and accomplishing every day during the year, and we can really enjoy that party. 

It is time for us to effect solutions.  Make the list.  Make the plan.  Today. 

Live a Vital life.

Inspiration for this article comes from Merlin Mann’s 43 Folders

We are not robots, although sometimes the dullness of life can make us feel that way.  At various stages of our lives, we are overwhelmed by the boredom of daily living.  I guess that is what winter vacations are for. 

There are many diversions built into our lives to relieve boredom.  There is the latest movie or album to entertain us for a brief period, there are events and activities of all kinds to break up our days, too many to mention.  Each one offers an invitation to participate. 

Back to the scribbled note, it names a major reason for living is to have a little joy.  What dismal persons are those who have no joy. 

Joy might be discussed as internal happiness.  We all know people who run the range from being nonstop happy (sometimes very annoying) to nonstop unhappy.  We should focus on the middle ground. 

Let’s look at it from the backside. We know a lot of things that will make us unhappy (supply your own list here) and by eliminating them from our lives (where possible) our happiness index will naturally rise. 

If our lives are weighed down by responsibilities, see them through and don’t renew. 

Once we have a written list of what makes us unhappy, we can also make a list of what would make us happy, and try them out, one at a time.  Then we know if it stays or goes from the list.  We should be creative and not hold back.  We may not ever have the opportunity to “run away with the circus,” but on that list will be a lot of dreams that could become reality if we follow that path.  

Now that’s a reason for living.

We should be careful what we wish for.  Winning the lottery, as an example, should make us happy, but many people who have won wind up unhappy, plagued by relentless appeals for money. 

A major item that makes people unhappy is lack of control over their life activities.  The punishment of imprisonment is more than the lack of freedom; it is the lack of control over the person’s life.  They can make almost no choices of their own. 

Many of us are caught in a web of our own making.  As we mature, obligations seem magically to accumulate and we are driven by them.  We feel we are losing control over large portions of our lives.  We are not happy, and can’t pin the reason why. 

Feeling helpless and loss of control makes us unhappy. 

We must be careful to combat those feelings early.  Left to themselves they will get worse and may cause depression.  People give up living when they lose all control. 

We should go back to that list or make a new list of things that obligate us and things that draw us to them.  Rate them on some scale, positive for the things we want to do and would make us happy, negative for the things that make us unhappy. 

Keep in mind that an obligation like college tuition for a child will result in the happiness of seeing that person graduate with a career.   

If there are relationship issues, there are thousands of articles and mentors that can help us deal with and improve them.

Make it a hobby to work on the list, taking steps forward to raise the negative ratings and gain free time to pursue the positive items that will bring us joy. 

Now that’s another reason for living. 

Finally, feeling useless makes us unhappy. 

We are social animals, and it is built into our genes to help others.  We can volunteer for something that helps another person.  It is one thing to send money, but physically working to help others face to face makes us feel useful and gives us deeper satisfaction. 

Can we make someone’s life better by helping them in some way that would only get done with our efforts?  Try it.  You’ll feel great.  

And that’s another reason for living. 

Don’t give up living and don’t “run away with the circus.” 

Be useful; be happy. 

Live a vital life.

If we attended a lot of holiday parties, we feel sluggish from too much food, we have no energy, and it is a challenge to get out of that easy chair at home.  We just feel old.

We know this is a temporary condition.  It has happened before.  After the holidays we will just get out, walk it off and renew our gym membership. 

But this is the wrong time of year.  In many areas, it is cold – certainly too cold to go out and walk or go to the gym.

We’ll just stay in until spring, and then we’ll walk it off.  We’ll save our energy. 

We are as young as we feel or as old as we feel. 

When we are in our twenties, our energy seems boundless, and we can do anything.  In our thirties we start to slow down, but it is hidden by the nonstop activities of work and family.  We notice that we can’t eat endlessly any more and perhaps it shows in our growing clothing sizes.

When we pass forty and our lives aren’t really over, we are starting to get the message that maybe we should start taking care of ourselves.  We might join a gym or start running or take up a vigorous sport.  We’re going to have a body like those people on the magazine covers. 

But it hurts to exercise at first.  We used to be able to run like the wind, but now we are more like a wind gust – run, stop, and gasp. 

Now we see our lives as really over.  We see ourselves marching slowly toward the grave, practicing getting old by moving slower, taking our time, being careful about everything. 

We learn to think old thoughts and live in the past since our future is so limited.  After all, doesn’t society expect and encourage us to age gracefully and limit our activity?  Aren’t our same-age friends feeling the same way?  And if everyone thinks that way, isn’t it true? 

No. 

At any time on our life path, there are alternative ways less traveled. 

The main road we travel with others our age leads to weakening and decline in our bodies.  Hardly noticeable at first, we gradually find it harder to stand or walk for an hour, or get out of a low chair or up off the floor.    This is especially true if our work is sedentary and we are the same in the rest of our lives. 

Our far-flung ancestors developed a perfectly functioning and efficient body, which is why their descendents survived.  We only use roughly 100 calories to walk a mile, but few of us walk that far in a day. 

And so our neglected muscles fall into disuse and lose their full function.  We fulfill our own prophecy and slow down because our muscle power has deteriorated.  Ailments come and we associate it with ageing.

But new research shows exercise slows ageing by keeping the body functioning at its top level.  One of the best paths to long life is feeling good about ourselves, and looking good with lots of energy will do it. 

Olympic 14 gold-medal winner Michael Phelps consumes a staggering 12,000 calories per day and trains six hours a day six days per week, without fail.  When asked in an interview how he keeps so fit, he replied, “It’s the exercise.”

What type of exercise is best?  That’s up to the individual.  Although the majority of people don’t exercise enough or at all, it still remains a personal decision. 

If we pick activities we enjoy, we will stick with it longer. 

Make a list — anything we like that involves the components of fitness: motion, endurance, strength, balance and flexibility. 

Aerobic endurance will build heart and lungs and let us keep moving.  Muscular strength, flexibility and balance will help us get out of that chair gracefully.   

And we should keep our muscles guessing by changing activities every month or two. 

We all have a preference for sedentary activities and many of us feel out of place where everyone else seems fitter than we are. 

Aerobic exercise means getting our blood pumping and breathing hard.  It doesn’t mean killing ourselves.  It also doesn’t mean ‘doing it tomorrow.’

Warming up and cooling down are key components to avoiding aches that make us quit and postpone.  Starting at and stopping from full speed is never a good idea. 

Stretching our joints instead of our jeans keeps our muscles loose and improves our balance and flexibility. Mobility and freedom from pain gained from regular stretching is a reward that we feel every day.

What’s a good fitness level?  Forget the magazine covers. It is the level at which we feel good and can get around easily.  We don’t have to be muscle-bound as long as the core area around our trunk is strong. 

The Internet and bookstores are full of suggestions on stretching and exercises that can be performed privately. 

Set some achievable goals to keep, then keep them.

The best exercise is the activity we will enjoy regularly.

Live long and limber!

With winter upon us, many of us are feeling cranky and cold in more than temperature.

Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) is a pattern of symptoms or syndrome characterized by depression during winter months when there are shorter days and too little sunlight, causing our body’s circadian rhythms (time clock) to lose synchronization with our body’s operational routine. 

The symptoms of SAD besides the fatigue and depression mentioned previously are loss of appetite or increased cravings for sweets, candies and carbohydrates,  as well as decreased activity promoting increase in weight. 

Studies concentrating on daily weather rather than seasonal climate have drawn conclusions that length of daylight, amount of sunlight and temperature have little effect on our moods. 

But we are more sensitive to climate than to weather.

One conclusion for climate-caused depression is that the small effect daily weather has on our moods is cumulative, building until it becomes a prime emotional state.  Dark gray days promote the secretion of melatonin (root: black tonic) that establishes sleep cycles; sunlight makes Vitamin D in the body which promotes wakefulness and lifts mood by boosting levels of serotonin (root: serum tonic). 

Other studies have shown a connection between pleasant spring weather and a more positive mood.  They conclude that the lengthening days bring our body’s operational routine back to our ‘normal’ settings.

So, what is a good way to lift that gray-sky melancholy?   Simple.  Get some sun.

Whenever the sun actually breaks through the winter clouds and shines brightly, get outside and let the sun hit your skin for a while.  It doesn’t have to be long if it is cold, but you will be surprised at how your mood lifts.

An alternative to natural sunlight, if the sun doesn’t break through, is an artificial sunlight lamp.  And for those of us wealthy enough, a midwinter vacation in a sunny location will boost your outlook.  If you can’t escape to a sunny isle, do activities that make you feel good. 

We often consider ourselves ‘evolved’ beings, no longer connected to our cave-dwelling ancestors.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  Our ancestors developed a highly tuned body that survived all the disasters that befell them.  They owned the perfected body, which is why they survived to have descendants.

Our ancestors did not venture out into the cold to freeze, but depression evolved to create a strong craving for getting out into the sunlight of spring.  They stockpiled food and firewood and spent their days protected from the elements, and sleeping to pass the time.  Those evolved urgings live in us today.

Don’t be a cold crank.  Change your outlook.  Warm up in the sunlight. 

I try to avoid eating any bananas during the week, because I know my wife will want to have a selection.

But by most Thursday nights, the bananas have darkened.  They have these ugly brown blotches on them.  Needless to say, my wife no longer finds them attractive enough to display on her desk as lunch approaches.

The remaining bananas are, needless to say, mine for the taking.

Long ago, I learned that the color of skin has little to do with the quality of what is inside. 

In the case of bananas, of course, the banana is delivered to the store all golden and fresh.  As the week progresses, with exposure to room temperature air and moisture, the bananas begin to change on the outside.  They develop “age spots” which grow with the length of exposure.

By the end of the week, they are certainly less beautiful than when we bought them.  But I like bananas for the taste.  At the point they become “Friday’s Bananas” the inside is still firm and tasty.  My gain. 

Several days later, the skin deteriorates to the point that I know they are all mushy inside, and even I won’t eat them. 

The point of this seemingly inane discussion is that our lives are filled with people and items that remain productive long after their expiration dates. 

Foodstuffs especially are dated early, both to avoid lawsuit and to sell more product.  There are some who religiously honor the date, and even improve on it.  I know a person who practically throws out the milk on the way home from the store. 

Many people are victims of automatic expiration fear.  Once they reach a certain age, they are set aside as no longer useful.  That may be true of an ageing body, but a person’s mind goes on long after their body loses shape. 

Don’t be afraid to eat Friday’s bananas.  Consider usefulness to you as an evaluation of expiration rather than a date someone else has put there.  Make your own decisions.

Consider that today’s life expectancy at birth (2005-present) in the USA averages 77.5 – 80 years with Western Europe in the same category.  Canada, Sweden, Iceland, along with France, Japan and Australia average over 80 years and Russia checks in with 65 – 67.5 year average (so much for the cold climate theory).

The USA position depends on who’s counting the member states.  We are at 30^th (CIA World Factbook-221 countries) or 38^th (United Nations-195 countries).  Twenty years ago, we were roughly 11^th.  Major reason:  Wealthy life style has made us obese, causing health problems and death in later life, combined with 36 million (12 percent of the population) living below the poverty line with inadequate healthcare.

We should feel grateful.  In 1940, average life expectancy was around 63.  By 1980 it had jumped to 73.7.  And here we are in 2009 at 78.  And the longer we live, the longer we can expect to live.  A 50-year old can expect to live another 30 years.  A 70-year old can expect another 14 years, and an 80-year old can have another 8 years.

Averages

All those figures are averages, plotted over this country’s entire 307 million-person population.  But people who live in rural areas with lower economic conditions have shorter life spans due to harder conditions, poor diet, less medical care.  People also have their lives ended due to war, accidents, and illnesses. 

Maybe this is a selfish position, but averages mean that every person who comes to the end of their lives at an age lower than the average, leaves a spot above the average.  On average, passing fifty, I can safely expect at least another 30 years, despite a chance accident or illness.  And, I had four grandparents who lived into their nineties.  I’ll make sure to take care of myself to get there and beyond.  I’m halfway there.

Living in the Now

Whatever time remains, I have learned to live today.  Although I make plans for the future, I have learned to live in the “now” because of those chance accidents or illnesses.  Today is the most important day in my life, because it is the only one I can control to some extent. 

Yesterday is gone and events cannot be rewritten.  Dr. Phil McGraw has an expression, “You can’t un-ring the bell.”

Reasons to enjoy

I have been right and I have been wrong.  I have been judgmental.  At this point in my life, I’ve had friends die (those accidents and illnesses), seen and lived and endured suffering in my own life, and been humbled more times than I care to remember or relate.  And through it all I have learned compassion for others discovering their own flaws and helplessness in situations thrust upon them.

I have been embarrassed so many times I’m all out of humiliation.

I have come to realize that I hardly know anything in the overall scheme of things.  When I was young, I knew it all, but as I got older, the “all” grew faster than what I knew, and I couldn’t keep up.  When I let go “the world’s steering wheel” and accepted the beliefs of others as real to them and just as valid as mine, my life got easier and less stressful. 

I associate with people of all ages.  The younger ones still have their dreams and bathe me with their excitement and enthusiasm.  They travel paths I will never see, but they carry me with them in their imaginings.  We trade advice and they keep me away from that judgment seat.  I encourage them and they divert me away from my old uncertainties.

Studies tell me that now I’m a better judge of character than when I was younger, my brain uses both sides at once, making it more efficient, and I’m less neurotic than I used to be.  I still worry about the problems the world faces, but I have enough experiences to know how quickly the course of events can take a new direction.  My hope is that it will be for the better.

I’m in better physical shape now than when I was 30.

It will be tough for young people to believe, but sex gets better with age.  It’s more about intimacy than gymnastics.  There is help at the pharmacy for any physical shortcomings, and there are no chance pregnancies.  We’ve witnessed each other at our best and our worst and have come to appreciate the beautiful interior even as our exteriors age.

Each of my grandchildren is a joy for me to see them grow in their personalities as well as their bodies.  And money can buy some happiness, whether it is a toy, an ice cream or a day at an amusement park.  This is my now as well as my future.  I learn from their live-in-the-moment, don’t-ask-where-this-came-from attitude.  I’ve been a parent.  Now, let’s have some fun.

Live a vital life.  Live free.