Welcome to the Blog for May, 2020

News and Views on Ageing
If you would like to comment on any of the posts below please see the Contact page.

Dream Time

Day Eighty of Solitude June 9th, 2020

 I sometimes recall a dream that leaves me  wondering, "Why now and not then?" Perhaps the  unconscious has the equivalent of the 30 year rule  and serves up some conclusions when the content  has been in conscious awareness for years. Dreams  like this one:

 I am working for a woman who tells me she has a  message for me from an old partner who has found a  house that would be suitable for us and it's a bargain  at £34,000.
 "And what's it's condition?", I am pretty sure what the  answer would be.
 "Apparently, it's just a shell." my employer replies.
 Yes, quite.

Hey subconscious can I please have more dreams like the one where I'm on a country walk and come across a square box with four black kittens in it.

Now that has some Jungian meat to get into plus the fun of waking up wondering how I am going smuggle four kittens into a house where the cats live outside.

Meaning and Purpose

Day Fortynine of Solitude May 10, 2020

 I have just finished reading The Ten Steps of Positive  Ageing by Guy Robertson. It is a very clear, readable  and straightforward manual for exploring the ageing  process combining, amongst others, aspects of  ognitive behavioural therapy, mindfulness, personal  growth and life harvesting.

 The section that really spoke to me particularly was  concerned with meaning and purpose, something  that ;I had not reflected upon before. What gives my  life meaning, do I have a sense my place in creation,  do I know what I am here to do.

 Having a sense of purpose gives our lives direction and motivation both of which are important throughout life but crucially important as we age.

Particularly as it would appear that society in general assumes that older people have no purpose other than to consume and be a burden.

Having meaning and purpose does not imply some grandiose scheme or a battle for glory, it can be volunteering for a cause close to our hearts, helping to nurture our grandchildren, running errands for housebound neighbours. There are as many ways of finding purpose as there people on the planet!

What Day Is It?

Day Fortytwo of Solitude May 3rd, 2020

 One of the effects of the current lockdown is that  most days are not much different than the previous  ones. No Tuesday is shopping day, no Thursday I  meet Jim for a hike – all gone until some vague and  ever extending point somewhere in the future.

 There are five us here in community in a combination  of self-isolating and social distancing and each of us  has a daily task that changes each week in rotation  on a Sunday.

 Last week I was tending to the two cats and the six  hens and this week I’m on office duties except that my waking brain did not register the day and off I set to carry out my chores.

Changed the cats’ water (why do they prefer greenish old rainwater to lovely Devon well water) noticing that their dry food bowls had food in I assumed they had not eaten any of their evening meal. Then I noticed that the tub for transporting the hens’ food was missing and went off to find another mumbling to myself about people taking stuff.

Luckily at this point Lucy came along and informed me that the hen’s were already out and fed, “But it’s my job.”
“That was last week, it’s Sunday.”
“Aha.”

Of course there are various interpretations but I prefer to laugh and add one more thing to my 6:00am routine after waking up and enquiring of myself “How are you feeling?” which will be “What day is it?”