Grandmothers With the Spirit of a Grandchild

There is nothing in the world as amazing as being a grandmother.

Do you remember that old line from "When Harry Met Sally"? As Meg Ryan is crying to Billy Crystal about a former boyfriend marrying someone else, she says, "And, I'm going to be forty!" "When?" he asks. "Someday!"

Well, I'm going to be sixty! When, you ask? In thirteen months, two weeks, and….but, really, I'm not counting. Nor am I dreading. What I am doing is planning. I'm planning to be healthier at sixty than I was at forty or fifty. I felt great at fifty, but somewhere over the past 8 years I got hit with the aging stick. I'll get in shape after I finish this whatever, or after we get back from wherever. But, as my son reminds me, I'm not getting any younger, it's not getting any easier, and if I keep procrastinating I'll procrastinate myself right into an early senility/bedriddenness (I'm thinking that is not a real word).

Over the past year or so I have suffered injury after injury (I'm sure I've written about them already, but I forget). Recovery is a bitch, I must say. The latest injury was a torn rotator cuff from pushing a stubborn dog off of the bed. My injury is to my left shoulder, my husband has the same thing in his right shoulder, and the darn dog has yet to budge. But, I have been showing up for physical therapy because I discovered that it really works AND it works a whole lot better when you not only make the appointments, but actually show up and do the work at home like they tell you to do. My posture is amazing compared to what it was two months ago. Not quite as good as my little sister's but she is a freak of nature and has been complimented on her posture for her whole life while I folded over so I could hide in my lap.

Anyway, just going through this last injury and coming out stronger has been inspiring. The therapist said I respond so well to it. That got me to thinking (ignoring the voice that tells me she says that to all of her clients), what if I worked on my entire body?!? I've been searching and searching for just the right something to motivate me and this seems to be my something. I CAN make a change! See, I've done it already.  PLUS, I quit drinking diet Cokes. Now that is about on a par with giving up heroin in my book. One day I consciously focused on the taste and it made me realize that I wasn't drinking happiness.  I was drinking and was completely hooked on a concoction that truly had the flavor of a chemical spill. (But, let the record show I still "jones" for one from time to time.)

I love being a grandmother, but it occurred to me today that I still have in me the spark of a grandchild. Don't we all? Don't you? I am about to be 59 and then, "if the good Lord's willin' and the creeks don't rise", I'll be 60. I want to be able to run up the stairs and skip one every once in a while. I don't want to spend the rest of my life in bed.

Somewhere I read recently that "Sitting is the new smoking." That's got me moving. I have been given approval to start yoga again on my birthday, March 6th. My fantastic PT says I'll absolutely be good to go by then. I'm psyched. Getting older is awesome. I love the perspective. I love the gratitude. I love, love, love the grandchildren. But, I don't love what grandmothers were expected to be like in the 50s, 60s. I mean, if I'm going to have blue hair, it is going to be BLUE, baby!

So, I must get back to my homework, but I just want to say that this year is going to be one where I focus on putting aside my excuses and just being the Nike ad. Yes, I want to just do it this year. One day at a time. I feel bad for those forty-year-olds. Fifty-nine is going to be sweet.