Dear LPG,

I have just celebrated yet another birthday and I think that I am now old enough to be considered an old pensioner but, for all that, I have to admit that I don’t really feel any older inside than I did when I first retired.  I admit to being slower in all things and I think that this is something that tends to be a feeling which manifests as a topic of conversation shared by all my age-peers every now and then.  

There is no doubt about it, somewhere in everyone’s existence, when we get to our seventies and eighties, that feeling of age catching up mixed with the aches and pains which also slow us down can become the variables that dictate a life-outlook and result in negativity.  

But looking at the situation from the other side of the coin, there are many positives too.  Without realising it we are likely to have swapped rushing around and trying to meet other people’s targets for only having our own to worry about.  So we can dictate how fast we want to go.

We can please ourselves as to what we want to do with our futures even though we often find ourselves with a new set of things that we have decided on by the time we get this far in life.  Remember that the secret is to continue no matter how slow you need to go.  Ralph Waldo Emerson, Oliver Goldsmith and a few other people throughout history have made the point that any journey is more important than its destination, although I think that I would argue that both entities need equal amounts of our consideration.

We senior pensioners also have the wealth of knowledge that being around for a relatively long life gives us.  We are the people who have the family history stored in our heads and handing that down is something that you can only do as you get older, so if you are between goals there is always one to be getting on with.

We have more time to concentrate on the problems of the younger people in our lives, and we have the experiences that allow us to be able to offer advice if it is wanted.  Those children, grandchildren and younger people in our lives often find themselves in situations, and with dilemmas that we have already faced.  They often think that we have no idea of what they are going through, but if you take away all the new-fangled trappings that they now have and we did not, we are so often left with history repeating itself in ways we can relate to and have advice on.

And there are those memories that make up who you are; all the recollections of things we did way back in time.  We need to cherish them and use them to remind ourselves of how you arrived at where you are.  Many will still make you smile and some will bring a little sadness with them. 

I know that there are many people who no matter how old will never lose that optimistic outlook that compels them to keep aiming for their lifegoals, and keep looking at life’s positives, but I am dedicating my message to one friend who I know reads your LPG pages and who, in my opinion needs to hear this message now.   I am appealing to those who, like her, might be looking at life through lenses with more negative tints when I say, ‘Please don’t get to the mind-set where you feel it is time to give up on life!’

CC, Crofton Park

CC told us that she would like to share this story which, though does not perfectly illustrate her point, will entertain and has a similar message…

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