How Old Are You?

I get the question nearly every single day and more now that I've lost weight and can be seen either riding my bike, my horse, going to the gym to work out, or just walking the parking lots surrounding my domicile (I like using words that make you grab a dictionary and learn something).  "How old are you?", they want to know. I usually don't mind answering anyone who asks, but it does make me a bit curious as to why they are asking in the first place.  What is age? Is there a certain rule or law that says a person is bound to act a certain way if they happen to be a certain number of years old? I don't think so. I mean, let's face it, some of the people I run into or see at the supermarket are in their 80s or 90s but their driver's licenses say differently. I bet if you give any number of them a physical fitness test or ask them to stop chain-smoking long enough to run a mile on the treadmill they either couldn't do it, wouldn't do it, or probably in most cases, they shouldn't do it. Death by trying to act their age would not be pretty!

I was born in 1961; a year that if you were to turn it upside down would still be 1961. I remember I was about four when I told my mother this and she shook her head at me and told me to play outside! Mom was always telling me to go outside and play and somehow that never offended me. I wasn't all wrapped up in a computer game or watching some show on television that I just couldn't pull myself away from - - mainly, I would say because we didn't have a computer then, they weren't even thought of really, and our television was controlled not by remote, but by my dad who had final say over literally every single thing we kids were to watch -- that's how old I am. I'm old enough to remember that going to church was a blessing and you could always count on seeing your grandparents, uncles, aunts, friends, cousins, and besties there too; who wouldn't want to go to church in Oklahoma? Baptists know how to cook; every last woman in the church grew up in their momma's kitchen, their grandma's kitchen; they cook, they bring it to church, we go, we eat.  I'm that old.

I'm old enough to remember to say "thank you", "please" and "you're welcome". We didn't text our friends to see if they wanted to hang out, we walked to their house and asked them. Hell, we didn't even have to go that far, they were usually outside by the lamppost or the creek and you just hung out, no one asked anyone else to schedule a play date! I'm old enough to remember to pray at the dinner table, and again at night with my family before bedtime. I'm old enough to open the door for you, to expect you to open it for me if I need you to, and I think I'm old enough to say "God bless you" if you sneeze. I'm certainly old enough to remember to stand for my flag, the National Anthem and to show respect when someone much older than me walked by me. I'm that old.

All that being said, I'm nowhere near as old as most of the people I went to school with. I'm eating right, drinking over 100 ounces of water a day, consuming no alcohol, and I don't smoke anything. I used to smoke rolled up Earl Grey tea, but only because it really annoyed my kids when I did it. I'm that old too; I still like to embarrass the tar out of one or the other of them when I can. I'm not so old that I can't dance and dance and dance and dance myself silly over two or three hours a night; after having jammed to my music choices in my headphones for several hours before that. I'm not so old that I have emotional issues either - I pray and I let God have those. I simply will not and do not worry about anything. God said not to fret, I don't fret. Fretting causes wrinkles and dammit, I don't want more wrinkles. I'm old enough to afford prescription creams to take away my wrinkles and I'm nowhere near old enough to allow them to show up where they are not wanted. Not this face! NOPE.

I'm going to meet my goal weight of 140 pounds soon, and when I do I'll likely be younger than I have been in so many years. I don't mean to brag, but this old lady has so much more energy than people half my age, and I have a lot more to look forward to because I won't let my mind sit still long enough to sprout weeds. Sunflowers! I do sunflowers in my brain people! BIG, BRIGHT, happy sunflowers! Who wants to be negative all the time anyway? Moving forward is the only direction a sunflower knows how to move - - UP!

At 58 I decided I was fat. I decided to change that. I changed that. I also decided to teach myself to play guitar, to write the book I knew I needed to write, and to move to Scotland, a place I have wanted to call my own since I was able to spell Scotland. (By the way, I'm old enough to remember card catalogs at the public library, and I had memorized the Dewey decimal system by the time I was 10.) I KNOW where books on Scotland are found at these public libraries - - today I order them online, but there was a time I checked books out and actually returned them! I'm old enough to have been blessed and able to walk to my public library alone at the age of 5 and never expected to be hurt or harmed. Damn, that's old.

I won't slow down, not now. I have no reason to do that. I wouldn't if I had a reason, I'd simply change the rules of the game. If you can't keep up with me you're welcome to sit this one out, but I'm moving -- I'll slow down when Jesus takes me home; that's the plan anyway. How old do you have to be to be able to love yourself and know you're worth every day you've ever lived? That's how old I am.