Grumpy or serene: it’s your choice! As I’ve aged (I’m 70 now; will be 71 in June), I see there’s two types of older people: grumpy or serene and the choice is yours. And I can guarantee you, I don’t want to be seen as grumpy!
I think of the movie, “Grumpy Old Men” starring Walter Matthau, Jack Lemmon and Ann Margaret. And I laugh! Yet those two old men personify “grumpy” to me.
This last week, I had a funeral to go to and saw how someone’s sense-of-humor cracked me up from the grave! Yes, I heard “Prop me up beside the jukebox if I die” at my friend’s graveside service. His personality lived as we laughed and cried. (See my post from last week.)
Then I had another interaction with a friend a year older than me, filled with anger at me for somethings I did years ago. It broke my heart as I read his list of resentments. Right then, I knew and see the contrast—grumpy not serene!
So, I turned to poetry as usual and this poem came up! Let me know what you think!
Grumpy or Serene? It’s My Choice!
I’m seventy, turning seventy-one.
In younger people’s eyes, that’s old.
I used to think seventy old.
But I look at myself in the mirror,
I take an emotional temperature,
And I’m sixteen
In a seventy-year-old body
That can’t go, go, go,
Like before.
I know that most of my life is behind me.
I packed a lot of living in my seventy years.
Yet I anticipate what’s coming ahead
With joy and expectation!
What will seventy-five be like?
Eighty?
Eighty-five?
Ninety?
I have a choice as I face my elder years:
Grumpy or serene!
I choose serene!
Some of my friends,
My schoolmates,
Same age or a year older or two,
Have chosen grumpy.
I can’t do it!
I can’t go there!
Yes, life has handed me
Disappointments
Heartache
Despair
But I funneled those negative feelings into
Recovery
Life
Love
People
Today I feed my serenity with
Writing
Time with Lin
In the hot tub
Watching movies
Traveling
Dancing when we can
Recovery meetings
Meditation
Quiet times with my God
Time with my brother
Watching sports
Trips to our ranch
Searching for wildlife
Reminiscing about our childhoods
I want my last days here
To be filled with
Laughter
Love
Travel
Dancing
Friends
Family
I count on more to come,
More of the good stuff,
Yes, I know weaved into it will be
Sadness
Loss
Trials
But I vow to you now,
Grumpy or serene won’t be a choice,
Because I choose serene!
In ending,
here’s some reading material to keep my older readers refreshed and serene and my younger reader prepared for your futures:
- The Gift of Years: Growing Older Gracefully by Joan Chittister
- Serenity at 70, Gaiety at 80: Why You Should Keep On Getting Older by Garrison Keillor
- Falling Upward, Revised and Updated: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life by Richard Rohr
Here are several May Sarton books I haven’t read but are on my list:
- Journal of Solitude
- After the Stroke: A Journal
- At Seventy: A Journal
- Endgame: A Journal of the Seventy-Ninth Year
- Encore: A Journal of the Eightieth Year
- Coming into Eighty: Poems
- At Eighty-Two: A Journal
Enjoy my interview on the podcast, The Writing Table
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