courage calisthenics - SEIZE the DAY!

“Courage is very important. Like a muscle, it is strengthened by use.”

The quote is from Ruth Gordon, the extraordinary actor whose career included stage, screen, television & writing.  She made her Broadway debut in 1915, her first major movie role in 1940, her last television appearance in 1984, her final movie in 1987. 

With her husband, Garson Kanin, she wrote Adam's Rib as well as Pat & Mike, along with other film & television scripts.  She won both the Academy Award & Golden Globe for her role in Rosemary's Baby, then played the lead in another cult classic, Harold & Maude.  She was an epic woman with clear-cut ideas on the importance of courage in living a vibrant life.  Broadway debut in 1915, final screen role in 1987?  The woman defined full life which, in our old age, requires courage.

Courage is a quality that grows & deepens with experience.  It develops over time, as we learn ways to accept reality, to solve problems based on our improving ability to make sound judgements, and to push our efforts beyond current struggles to a future successful outcome.  Courage can be quiet, but its just as courageous.

Courage in personal relationships has a different quality than the courage we think of when we watch a Saving Private Ryan or The Longest Day.  In personal relationships, courage is seen in our attempts to be productive, to contribute to a greater whole, to reach out & help others develop a greater sense of personal integrity & well being.


My parents' generation experienced circumstances & situations that strengthened their courage muscle.  My mother was a little girl during The Great War, in her late teens in October 1929, a young parent during World War II.  She knew the struggle of living in a home with electricity but no running water, knew the uncertainty of Dad getting his induction notice (rejected due to rheumatic fever as a child), told us kids stories about air raid drills & funerals for young men they knew who'd never return from Europe & the Pacific.

While my generation experienced Vietnam & Civil Rights & Women's Rights, our country wasn't touched in the same personal way by any of them the way our parents were affected by what they went through - loss of wealth income status, deprivation, rationing, grief.  Those experiences helped instill a sense of courage, that if you hold on & stay steady, things will turn out.  Just have courage.



It's my honor to have many older friends who served in World War II, on battleships, as airmen, serving in the WAVES & Army Nurse Corps, infantrymen, midshipmen, at home & around the globe.  I look at them, most  with a slightly faltering step, many with a walker or cane or even wheelchair & try to picture the young submariner, infantryman, midshipman, navigator.  They are still in there!  I know friends who served  & ones who sacrificed what they held most precious - brothers, fathers, sweethearts, friends.  When I am with them, I often imagine them in those younger years.


This older generation went through hell & came out the other side with a great capacity for courage.  Did they ever think, in at long ago youth, in their young adult & even middle years, that the capacity for courage is what helps determine if you age into an elder or simply grow old?  I doubt it, yet it is so very true.  Old age ain't for sissies & the ones who face it down the best are typically those with the most courage.

How can we help our older loved ones & friends strengthen that all-important courage muscle?  (And start strengthening our own for what is down the road.)

SEIZE the DAY!
Ask someone at once-dowdy AARP what inspired them to have Real Possibilities be what we envision, rather than Retired Persons, to come up with their brilliant Life Reimagined initiative.  My guess is they'd say, "It was the right time."  They looked at & responded to their membership, as we are now. 

\

Would that all my older friends could do that - look at themselves, as they are now.  Too many dwell in the past.  Wait - too many of US do, to!  As AARP points out in its current  Will Can Do campaign, too many of us harp on woulda coulda shoulda.

AARP is asking members, "You're thinking about 'What's next?" but wondering where to start & make it happen."  Twenty years ago, that possibility would have been unthinkable.  For years, I've done everything in my power to convince older friends that every day has the potential for greatness, no matter what their age health circumstances.  Blessings on AARP, an organization they know & trust, to shout out that we are NEVER too old to start bold new ventures.  Starting a late-in-life career (look at me!), consciously making healthier choices, setting out to make new friends or nurturing (maybe healing) current relationships - we are never too old to set & accomplish goals.  But only if we seize the day!

Through Independence Day, I'll share thoughts on how we can use courage calisthenics to strengthen that all-important muscle.  We all need to bulk it up, keep it toned firm flexible.  I'll never be Ruth Gordon, but can make sure that I'm the best version of ME possible at this place, in this time.  Seize the day - how can I do that in this moment?  And may I be inspired to ditch all the thoughts of woulda coulda shoulda that try to wiggle their way into my thoughts & dampen my energies, actively replacing them with WILL CAN DID.



One great way to dwell in courageous possibility is to subscribe to Live Happy magazine.  A friend gave it to me for Christmas.  To be honest, I thought, "Really?  Janie, this is the best you could come up with?  A magazine?"  Oh, how that magazine changed my life!  Because of it, I attended the Leading to Well-Being Conference this past March, which broadened & depended my appreciation of what we can all do to expand a soul-calming sense of well-being to our lives, to the lives of those around us. Get a subscription for yourself, for a loved one - yes, even the crotchety ones!  The articles are short & interesting, the graphics are engaging, the magazine is great!