"well, I don't know how a 94 year old should feel"
-Olga Kotelko
Getting Old, Running Out Of Time...
One thing that has been on my mind as of late is this massive adherence to schedule and time. Not just on the micro day to day level, but on the macro big picture level, too. I feel a strange sense of urgency in many places of my life where I may have been neglectful or that I have not achieved something that I need to and it leaves me with the feeling of anxiety and even sadness or fear.
The main thing is, that I feel like I might be running out of time. A friend and I were talking about time at work and we commented a bit on how silly the whole concept of it is. What does it mean, anyhow? Why are we so worried about it, to the point that we live our lives in fear of it. We as people have an understanding that things have an end, and we hate that. We work in such a way that we worry about the conclusion of everything.
So what do I do about not worrying about time anymore? How can I know that I'm going to be ok? Maybe Olga Kotelko can tell me something about age and fulfillment. Olga, is a Canadian track and field athlete who holds hundreds of gold metals and twenty six (Every one available) world records in her age group... of NINETY to NINETY FIVE!
Olga, didn't start her athletic career until she was seventy seven. But that's not really everything there is to say about Olga, she's just simply an amazing spirit. Watch this brief video from her below.
"The future and the day after is going to be ok, because it's ok today."
I don't foresee anything out of the ordinary happening, and when it does come I'll just have to accept it and go on."
Such an amazing thought! My takeaway? Live in a way where you don't fear tomorrow, because even if something happens you can handle it and move on. Your future is not shrinking, you're NOT getting old, life can begin at 77, start something NEW today. I love this, so much. Thanks Olga! you're an inspiration to us all.
-Matthew
Time has been my nemesis for a long time, I just realized it maybe 5 years ago that it was the source of most of my stress. Quicker, more efficient were my war cries.
ReplyDeleteI'm slowly weening myself away from that mentality, but its an uphill battle to undo so many years of self programming.
Thank you for posting this.
You bet, Ottaro, and I know how you feel. We're under so much pressure to preform, it's almost as if we're in a constant state of fight or flight!
DeleteIt's time to just laugh at ourselves and enjoy life!
My maternal grandmother lived to the ripe old age of 104. I wish I could have asked her her secret, but age-related dementia stole her ability to remember things, like who I am.
ReplyDeleteShe was an incredible woman, had a masters degree in a male-dominated field, but ended up being my grandfather's nurse because of his manifold health problems. She didn't regret it. When she was a young woman, before she met Oskar, my grandfather, she had traveled all over the country, as far as Vancouver, BC, from her home in Florida, and then after she and Oskar married - he worked for Seaboard Railroad - they traveled with my Mom and her 2 siblings anywhere in the US where there were train tracks.
When Oskar fell sick with one malady after another, she plunged right in and learned to take care of him. Purely coincidentally, one set of my paternal cousins lived a block down the street, so in the afternoons of our pre-school (not preschool, PRE-school) days, Ruth had "school" in PopPop's garden. If you wanted a snack, you could pull a carrot or radish, eat a handful of beans right off the bush, or break off a few leaves of the various kinds of lettuce he grew and munch on them. By the time we - and this included the neighbor's (Dr Oliver) kids, too - got to school, we could all read, write, do basic arithmetic, and, now, all of us have advanced degrees. I think there's a connection there.
Ruth made time. She made a hundred and four years of it. She never looked hurried, she never acted as if there wasn't all the time in the world to do whatever needed to be done.
Sometimes, when I find myself up to my ass in alligators and no swamp-draining machinery handy, I remember sitting on the log-section seats PopPop made for us to sit on during "school" in his garden, in the dappled warm Florida sun streaming through the catalpa trees that ringed the garden, the faint sweet smell of nearby orange groves in the air, and remembering a time in my life that was idyllic.
Time that Ruth made.
I really enjoyed that, Jim, thanks for sharing that memory. I really like the idea of having a "Stop and smell the roses" moment where you remember a time and a place that reminds you to just slow down and enjoy it.
Delete"Ruth made time. She made a hundred and four years of it. She never looked hurried, she never acted as if there wasn't all the time in the world to do whatever needed to be done." A perfect sentiment that fits so well here. thanks again.
ReplyDelete