Second Guessing Oneself

Unless you are a sociopath you have probably second guessed yourself once or twice in your lifetime.  It is a very disconcerting feeling to wonder if you have done the right thing but worse is having to admit that you might be wrong.

          One of the dangers of becoming mature (read older) is that we tend to have the idea that we now know it all and therefore cannot possibly make a mistake.  I say this tongue in cheek but if you admit it to yourself, don’t you often believe that you are probably right even when you say “well, I may be wrong but . . . “ or words to that effect?  I may have mentioned this before but my father used to confound me by saying that he would always be the wiser because of “life experience”.  Naturally it was difficult to combat those words but now I have them in my arsenal as I climb up the ladder of maturity.

          There is the downside to climbing up the ladder of maturity though, as my mother mentioned to me after making a call to her cousin.  Ingemarie said “now I’m on top of the ladder and I don’t like it very much” – meaning that the only place to go was the graveyard.  My mother is the second youngest of that whole crew and she is next on the ladder.  I looked at Mom and said that of the next generation I was getting mighty near the top as well because all the older ones have pretty near dropped off already.  It’s kind of an alarming state of life!

          I enjoy talking with my mother about life because she has a great deal of life experience even though she’s lived a very quiet life.  But she is observant and is a great reader and she likes to share her observations of life.  Fortunately for both of us, I am a great listener so I am learning a lot from her.  Some of the most valuable things I am learning is how to handle the aging process.  There are some things that I “know” but I am still not acting upon.  But other things are new revelations.

          Keeping current is a vital part of having a good quality of life in old age.  If you let the world pass you by then when you really need to know something, you will be at a loss.  So don’t put off learning all those electronic gadgets and don’t put off doing your research to all the things that will make your life easier in retirement.  There are so many things that I never thought of, even though I’ve been doing a lot of studying up on retirement.  For instance, there are a lot of programs for seniors that you can access through your provincial government (besides financial aid) and many of these programs are free.

          Something huge – loneliness.  As a person grows older her acquaintances drop off and unless you are constantly building new relationships suddenly you will be very lonely when you are in your 70’s or 80’s.  And for those of us who are young enough – what’s stopping you from adopting an elderly person in your church or your neighbourhood?  God and the universe will bless you for it.  This I know for sure.