Women 50 and Over | Women Over 50 | Gracefully Aging

Oops50: SadhviSez: This New Age is Funny

February 4th, 2012

I know I am getting old. Not being raised in the New Age, I am just part of the wave of people of my generation that would bring it in. I remember when I stopped eating meat because I couldn’t handle eating something that was alive…and how I kind of felt like I was an outcast when trying to find a place to eat out. I remember discovering miso, herbs, fresh ginger, spirulina, earth shoes and Birkenstocks.

No one really ate out much. Mostly everyone cooked their meals at home. I bought my tofu and brown rice and organic veggies (that usually looked kind of wilted) at a funky health food store, not the posh Whole Foods-like stores of today.

I’m not dwelling on the past! I just want to share this clip of something that I found kind of funny…enjoy!

Tags: Beautiful Women >50, humorouswomenwriters, oops50, sadhvisez, the new age
Posted in Aging, Beautiful Women >50, Getting Older, Main, Sadhvi Sez | 5 Comments »

Oops50: Farmer Nancy Shares a Pet Peeve

February 1st, 2012

NANCY

I miss Andy Rooney, and, in tribute to him, I am going to air one of my pet peeves. I’ve gotten so I read through the obituaries, partly for that feeling of having won a little lottery when I don’t see anyone’s name I know (so at this point, I still win a lot) and partly to read about strangers’ lives and marvel at the detail in some of them. I have to admit that I also look to see mentions of a beloved pet left behind. I do that with wedding announcements, too, and feel instantly connected when I see a pet in the picture with the happy couple. I guess I should disclose that my dog “Pasha Bird” shared space with me in my college yearbook.

But, back to obituaries! Often I see a picture of a young person staring out at me, and I gasp to myself, thinking, “how sad,” but then, when reading on, I discover the person is actually way past 60. It happened just today in the Chapel Hill News.

Are we trying to say we are now forever young? I don’t get it. There was a flapper not long ago in the Raleigh paper, hair flattened down with tight curls, in a roaring twenties dress. So, of course she was in her nineties. Would any of our current acquaintances recognize us if we put our high school picture in our announcement? Is it the families that do this? Or do we, upon reaching a certain age, pick out our best shot from fifty years ago and designate it as our ‘parting’ shot?

I can see that some people may just not have a more current picture, but in this digital day and age, I would think they would be in the minority.

So, for heaven’s sake, anybody who doesn’t have a recent picture, please ask your grand kids to snap one of you, so we won’t have to move you through all three focal levels in our glasses to figure out even that we knew you!

Now I’m going to look up Andy’s obit to see what his picture was like. Here it is:

ANDY ROONEY'S OBITUARY PHOTO

Tags: aging, aging gracefully, Andy Rooney, Dogs, elderwomenbloggers, obituaries, Oops50women, pet peeves, women's journeys, womenwriters
Posted in Aging, Beautiful Women >50, Getting Older, Humor, Other Voices | 2 Comments »

I Salute Pit Bulls and Parolees

January 30th, 2012

Annice

For the last month, my Saturday night entertainment has been Animal Planet’s Pit bulls and Parolees. I am a devotee of this show that brings together an amazing cast of tattooed characters and critters. For starters, there is Tia Torres, a tough red-headed super hero mom over 50, who founded Villalobos Rescue Center(VRC) to save abused and abandoned pit bulls. With her on this journey are her family and a crew of ex-cons who work tirelessly caring for almost 200 pit bulls at their 10-acre facility. It’s a story of wounded souls to the rescue, and I love it. No job is too difficult for this dedicated and tattooed team. I’ve seen them spend days out in the scorching desert waiting to capture and rescue one scared dog.

Tia and friend

This past week, I witnessed Tia and her crew trek out to Alabama (from CA) to help rebuild a dog rescue center that was destroyed by the tornado there. They conducted a memorial service for the twenty some dogs that were killed and at the very moment during the service when the name of each dog that perished during the tornado was being called out, the other dogs on the premise were howling as if they, too, heard the names and were saying good-bye. And don’t forget to keep a box of Kleenex close by…

The drama is gripping. Not only does this amazing super hero, Tia, run the rescue for these four-legged friends but a rehabilitation program called Underdawgz for the parolees. Tia believes both pit bull and parolee have been maligned and feared and both are in need of training and rehab, and Tia is committed to that — no matter how long it takes! I love her.

Showing the Love

But if you’re thinking about adopting one of these doggies, Tia doesn’t make it easy. She is is very strict about who adopts these animals because they are not for the bleeding hearts, and she wants everyone to know what they’re getting into. It takes commitment and hard work to own one of these rescues, but from what I’ve seen on the show, the reward is great.

Tags: midlife journey, pets, womenover50, womenwritersover50
Posted in Entertainment, Family, Journey, Main, Pets | 2 Comments »

Sadhvi Sez: The Life of Flowers and Bunnies

January 28th, 2012

FLIP, FLOP, and FLORIAN

The quince bush has started to flower. Some of the dandelion flowers have bloomed. It’s cold and below freezing at night, and sunny and reaching in the 50′s in the daytime. It’s the warmest winter that I can remember in the 13 years that I’ve been in these parts.

But me and the 3 new baby bunnies we got gifted to us are very happy! We like sunshine and blue skies. And we like it crisp at night.

A non-profit animal rescue shelter nearby had just too many baby rabbits. So we agreed to take these three.

It’s always interesting how our animals get their names. In this case, we had to fill out a four page form and sign in front of a witness, saying that we would never eat them, that we would give them fresh water and food daily (listing what kind of food and what is the source of our water), and then there were 3 blanks for their names. After reading all these pages, I decided to write in those blanks, “Finger, Lickin’, Good.”

Oh, just kidding! Flip, Flop, and Florian are what they will be called.

By the way, the one on the right in the picture, he really is smiling. His name is “Flip”. “Florian” is the one in the middle, making “Flop” on the left.

I love all of our animals. I put flower essences in their water, or make tea for them when it gets really cold. I grow 3 different types of mint for them. As well as lemon balm, basil, thyme, rosemary, oregano, parsley; I know they like the sprouted bread that I like from the store, so I will toast the ends for them. I wish I could eat them beacuse I bet they would not need much seasoning! But no, it would be like eating a close relative for dinner.

In return, I am gifted with the most wonderful manure that I could hope for. Rabbit manure can be put directly in the garden, without any composting. The only other manure is bat guano. But that is hard to come by.

The daffodils are up and have buds. Which is different, since there are no crocuses appearing. Nothing can be done. And, nothing matters…words from Osho that I find comforting these days.

I hope you are enjoying your life.

Life of flowers from VOROBYOFF PRODUCTION on Vimeo.

Tags: elderwomenwriters, manure, sadhvisez, women over fifty, womencougars, womencrones, womenwhoblog
Posted in Gardening, Sadhvi Sez | 5 Comments »

Looking Back on Botswana

January 25th, 2012

JANE

So, I’m back from Africa and settled back into my life (after considerable jet lag). It’s hard now even to believe that just a week ago, I was driving around the wilds of Botswana in a safari vehicle, looking at rhinos and giraffes and elephants. It all seems like a movie that I went to see, and now I’m out of the theater, dazed by the bright outside light and realizing that I ate a little too much popcorn (or, in this case, one too many ‘fat cakes,’ a Botswana staple consisting of a big ball of friend dough dripping with grease).

This trip to Africa made me feel both younger than usual and older. I felt younger to realize that I still had the nerve to go exploring and camping in remote places, with my 2 girls and some camping equipment. It also made me feel younger to try new foods, meet new people, and to see new things. However, the trip also made me feel older, in that I had more anxiety about things than I had ever had in the past. Part of this is probably due to the fact that it was Africa I was visiting and not Wales (where I ventured when I was 19 and traveling by myself for the first time).

Part of my anxiety was also due, I’m sure, to the fact that I didn’t have my husband with me—for the first time in about 28 years! After all, Tom is always so on guard against every possible hazard to our kids that it makes it easy for me to relax and be laid back.

But the biggest part was probably just due to the fact that I’m 58 years old and a little too aware of the bad things that can happen to good people. While Becky was excited to see the very interesting lizard on the roof of our camping tent, I couldn’t help but imagine that lizard dropping down on us in the night to give us a fatal, poisonous bite. While Becky and Josie both enjoyed steering the rental car through the sandy roads into Khama Rhino Sanctuary, I kept imagining us stuck in the sand on a backwoods trail, with no one to come and rescue us or bring us water. It made me feel old to be conscious of every mosquito bite, fearing dengue fever or malaria.

JANE ON SAFARI

I have to admit it: when our plane touched down in Philadelphia, and I knew, for the first time, that I had gotten at least one of my girls safely back on this side of the ocean, part of me breathed a huge sigh of relief.

But then, I have to remember that there was also another part of me that was ready to pack up and go again.

I guess there’s still some life in the old girl.

Tags: africa, Botswana, camping, dengue fever, elder women, malaria, oops50, travel, women over 50, womenbabyboomerwriters
Posted in Aging, Beautiful Women >50, Family, Journey, Main, Travel, World | 4 Comments »