THE ART OF AGING – Part XVIII: Thin-Skinned

Your skin changes with age. It becomes thinner, loses fat, and no longer looks as plump and smooth as it once did. Your veins and bones can be seen more easily… may bruise more easily… Age spots, once called ‘liver spots’, are flat, brown spots often caused by years in the sun. They are bigger than freckles and commonly show up on areas like the face, hands, arms, back, and feet.*

ecently, while completing typical domestic tasks, I noticed bleeding nicks on my fingers. I smiled as I cleaned and bandaged the tiny wounds, suddenly very aware of my bony knuckles covered by a thin layer of skin. I noticed a few ‘freckles’ there as well 🙂 .

Thinning skin is part of aging, whether we like it or not. And, when it comes to aging, understanding what is in your control, and what is not in your control is part of the aging game.

But, what about being thin-skinned when it comes to the less-fabulous stuff happening to us at this juncture in life’s Grand Slam, stuff like aging itself? How thick is our skin, and how quick is it before our bony knuckles curl into a fist, wanting to plow them into something?

Just as aging may slow one down a wee bit, sometimes, to the contrary, one becomes quicker at expressing intolerance, impatience, judgement. One might also express a lackadaisical approach to life, an ‘It doesn’t really matter’ or ‘Who cares?’ attitude.

Life experience has stored memories of successes and failures, growth and set-backs upon which we’ve created survival tools, some of those tools continuing to help us overcome daily challenges, and some helping us to know when to ‘let go’. Our ability to have survived to this later segment of life is proof that ‘we know what we’re talking about’, right?

Probably not. . .

Inspired to Learn? Not!

hatting with a college instructor recently, it was disappointing to hear that the Covid pandemic has dramatically disrupted student learning, and apparently the subsequent outcome of this disruption is problematic! Just how is/was student learning disrupted?

Schools were closed due to public safety laws, leaving students subjected to online classes given by teachers mostly unfamiliar with that style of scholastic delivery. The problem? Students didn’t like the new mode of learning. The result?

THE ART OF AGING – Part III: Change

CHANGE… one word that pretty much describes aging—physical change, mental change, emotional change, location change, career change, spiritual change, relationship change… Even our goals change as we journey through the later years of our lives.

Aging often entails the need to make changes, and that the types of changes older people must consider are particularly pressing.ⁱ

Some of us handle change well, and some of us don’t. Why is that? Can managing change in a wholesome manner be learned? Can change be avoided?

THE ART OF AGING – Part V: Friends

A Friend In Need

Cassius Marcellus Coolidge 1903

Friends come, they go, and they stay. There are instant friends—you know, the ones you click with on first meeting. There are passing friends—the ones you connect with on an overseas trip or special work project, and even though you stay in touch via technology, the friendship link soon dissipates. Maintaining long-distance friendships is difficult at the best of times. One also can’t ignore that with aging comes changes in our friendships.

And, there are the friends that some people have that become part of their forever life.

THE ART OF AGING – Part VI: Religious Practice

Have life’s batters and challenges left you abandoning religious faith all together? Years of experiences and trials leave you questioning the reality of an ultimate deity who cares about us, who truly loves us, who guides and protects us? Or, are you engaged in religious practice now more than ever before?

Maybe you’re in the process of deciding whether or not to adopt religious conviction. As we age, it’s natural to reflect upon our religious beliefs, and upon religion in general. Research says being religiously active is good for us! Time to buy in?