Location location location - praise be the National Center for Creative Aging is located in the heart of our nation's policy-making, an easy train ride from 30th Street to Union Station. It was quite the rush, being in our nation's capitol with all it's majestic buildings & knowing that I was there for a purpose, not just a tourist or casual visitor.
Will always & forever remember leaving the 05/19/15 briefing at Capitol Hill, taking that walk d o w n Massachusetts Avenue to Union Station, just so I could call John from it's hallowed (for us) halls. It's not a long walk, but it sure is down!
It was wpndering where to have lunch that took me down to Union Station, but no eateries there held any interest for me. Praise be for my smart phone! (Got my very ever smart phone before last year's NCCA Conference.) Discovered that The Dubliner was just five minutes away & open for lunch (serves breakfast, too).
What a lovely turn of events. Not merely because I could have a pint of Harp for lunch, but because both the place & the name hold wonderful memories for me. Frank Brittingham had a place he called The Dubliner down in Philadelphia & it was a special spot for me, the sight of many a grand evening & great friends. Alas, Frank had to close it down when The Dubliner in D.C. took afront at his use of the name. But grand times were enjoyed - especailly when Gerry & Tom were playing - while it lasted.
The actual place holds happy memories because I went there with a friend probably close to 30 years ago when we were down in D.C. for a fun weekend. it was the perfect bar for two women to hang out, enjoy the music & high revels, and feel just oggled enough to be complimented. On this visit, had the grand fun of being surrounded by naval officers at practically every table - part of an even back up the hill.
From The Dubliner, it was quick nip to the metro & onto the Arena Stage for the plenary sesson of the 2015 National Center for Creative Aging Conference & Leadership Exchange. I was excited, wondering how it would feel coming back to the location of last year's conference, to KNOW where everything was rather than stumbling around getting familiar with it all.
Location location location. I am so blessed to live so close to D.C., where the NCCA is headquartered, to have friends who live close by who let me bunk with them, who lived a 10-minute drive from a beautiful metro station, to be my father's daughter & therefore undaunted by navigating around D.C. - whether to Capitol Hill or down to Arena Station of UP to Tenley Town & the Kreegar Museum. I - we - are blessed that Gene Cohen found the locus of his life in D.C. & in revealing the creativeness & play that are inherent our lives, from first breath to last. As Gay Hanna, who opened the plenary session, has said, "(Gene) wanted to move the paradigm from a focus on problems to a focus on potentials."
Location location location. How blessed I am to have been born & bred in a small town with remarkable resources & engaged hearts, to be alive at the very moment in time when attention & energies are focused on revamping our culture's sorry attitudes about getting older & the elderly, when the very vibes around us call out for action & adventure in moving from dwelling on problems to celebrating potential.
Location IS everything & it's my great blessing to find myself right in the heart of the action, primed with a lifetime of working with some of the most spectacular models of fabulous s-aging you can find, and ready to think globally & act locally to do everything I can to turn things from dire & drab to expansive & extraordinary!
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