Being Fifty

We more mature women have been giving Marie our wisdom about turning 50, the most significant item being that we no longer care what people think or say. Fifty is like liberation to the n’th degree. Gillian and I echo Oprah’s declaration

“Our fifties are the best time ever.”

I wonder why it takes us until that milestone before we really start caring more about ourselves and less about others? Do we feel we are on the last leg of the journey, albeit the thought is not at the forefront of our thinking? Have we decided we no longer want to carry the weary loud? Do we simply feel tired of having dished out respect all our lives and now it is our turn to get a little respect? Or a hundred other combinations of “enough already”? Whatever the reason I know that I just feel like I want to do what I want, think what I think and the heck with what anyone says. It just feels great.

Another thing I’ve noticed about people in general in my age group is that we are less caring about being “politically correct” though we may give some lip service to the topic. Even men seem to shrug their shoulders and say what they think. It’s good to just be natural and not feel that we must walk a fine line of thinking like the newspapers want us to at least speak. Perhaps that is why we relate so well to Maxine of cartoon fame.

Oh dear, I’m just noticing that it is raining quite a bit which means I won’t be walking this morning unless I take my umbrella (I did put one in the car before I left). Yes, that’s another thing- we no longer fuss about our hair! But to compensate for all these “care for nothings” we have become obsessed with weight gain which is quite a downside. But that’s a talk for another day.

Today we are touring wineries, there are 2 new ones besides our 2 favorites that we like to visit when we come out here. We will be taking some bottles home with us – which is apparently against some obsolete law still on the books although it is no longer enforced if it is for private use. At least that’s what we believe. We didn’t even know about the law until Gillian read some article recently!

Let’s hope we aren’t made examples of because then I will have to make a phone call and it may be to you!