What would you do if you had the guts to do it?
That was the question I read a couple of days ago. It gave me a pause that tickled my brain. If I had been asked that question when I was younger, I could have easily come up with a list of exciting ideas.
Come to think of it, I even followed through on a few of them, like taking up skiing when I was 40, rafting quite a few wild rivers, doing a 20-mile day hike with a physically-fit boyfriend when I was 50. I survived – both the hike and the boyfriend. I even skydived on my 70th birthday and got a tattoo on my 75th.
But when I think about guts these days, as an 82-year-old whose body, if not mind, is winding down, it has nothing to do with physical accomplishments.
My guts these days tell me only to live each day to the fullest in whatever way I can.
Poet and novelist May Sarton talked about this idea of planning a day when one doesn’t have a job or commitments. It’s not easy, she wrote, in Journal of a Solitude.
I agree.
So it is that I start each day with coffee, my journal, and my to-do list, beginning it with the top priority for the day — which can be anything from write a book review to clean the toilet — followed by things I simply want to do. The guts come in when it gets down to the doing.
Some days I succeed – and some days I don’t.
Today I succeeded. The first thing on my list was post a blog.
Pat Bean is a retired award-winning journalist who lives in Tucson with her canine companion, Scamp. She is a wondering-wanderer, avid reader, enthusiastic birder, Lonely Planet Community Pathfinder, Story Circle Network board member, author of Travels with Maggie available on Amazon (Free on Kindle Unlimited), and is always searching for life’s silver lining.
Pat Bean's blog 
Pat, I remember reading Journal of a Solitude when I was an unhappy thirty year old, longing for a simple life. Now I can do it but i don’t. Thanks for the reminder!
Great Post and a Great Reminder 🙂 In working full-time and having responsibilities with senior parents I can have a full plate some days. I make at least 5-to-30-minutes for myself to bookend my days in the morning and in the evening before going to bed. Self care is so very important and makes for me being a better (and nicer) person to be around. Take Care
What’s that saying? Watch out you may get what you want. Thanks for commenting Linda.
Yes, Pat, can so identify. We’ve headed into another chapter and it’s a struggle. As they say, “aging ain’t for sissies.”
Nope, it’s not for sissies Rose… but I like the alternative less. Thanks for commenting.
On my nature photography blog I’ve started speaking out against the illiberal, blaming, cancelling, censoring turn our country has so suddenly and relentlessly taken. Speaking out has lost me from a third to a half of my audience, but I felt I couldn’t live with myself if I didn’t say something.
Good for you Steve. I’m sort of in the same place. Let’s keep speaking out for kindness, sanity and common sense. And by the way I love your blog.
I too can identify. I have always wanted to travel somewhere far away alone, just me and my thoughts and doing what I want to do. Now that I am in my 70’s and the complicated mess we live in today, I don’t have the guts. The best I do is set aside a day to myself that I have to put on the calendar to make sure I do it and go hike or walk through the county parks here – alone.
Thanks for commenting Lucy. All we can do is keep on keeping on. The world needs us old broads, even if it doesn’t know it.