Let's go out with a bang!

Machu Picchu courtesy of TripAdvisor

I was a bit taken aback recently when someone commented that going back to university at my age was perhaps best left to the young ones, and that I shouldn't be cramping my daughter’s style. While my brain may be teetering close to overload, I am not quite ready to be put out to pasture. I cannot remember when last I have been so stimulated by what I am learning.

Last night I met someone, “my age”, who has climbed Kilimanjaro and hiked to Everest base camp. Next on her list is the Inca Trail and Machu Picchu in Peru. My friend, Kam, has also done the Everest base camp as well the Inca Trail.

I dragged myself away from my books to have a quick look on the internet which revealed that in November 2012, life expectancy in SA was said to have increased to 60 years from 54 in 2009, according to The Lancet health journal. In 2009 the South African Institute of Race Relations said that South Africans would not live longer than 50 years, and World Bank indicators in 2010 put the life expectancy for women in SA at 52.2 years. So it does seem that I may well be in my twilight years…

However, I am not getting depressed by this. Far from it. I am surrounded by inspiring women who are not letting age stand in the way of their goals. My friend, Mary, has just published a cookbook which she did the layout for and took the photographs; Alison, who, recently became a grandmother, has just returned from a trip to the Antarctic, has walked the Santiago and learned to speak fluent Spanish. There are numerous others who have changed track completely and re-invented themselves.

There are many mountains left to climb - let's go out with a bang!

New Beginnings

"Every day have a little bird on your shoulder that asks, "Is today the day? Am I ready? Am I doing all I need to do? Am I being the person I want to be?" 

Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom

It was pretty dark when I woke up just before six this morning. There was a gentle patter of rain on the tin roof over the stoep. I love that soft rain which sometimes falls in the summer time, as if it is coming to wash the heat and dust away. Now it is raining quite hard, big fat drops coming down as if there's a lot of cleansing to be done before we can start a new cycle. 

It has been quite a stormy year on many levels: hurricanes and elections in the US, violence all over Africa and the Middle East, protests in Russia and Greece, a landslide victory for Jacob Zuma, and the economies of many countries in Europe still reeling in the aftermath of the crises of a year ago. 

On a personal level, we and everyone we know, seem to have had an unusually busy year with little time to socialise or connect. Everything seems to have had a good shake up, and by time too. When things get shifted around, energy gets moving in places it might not have reached. 

Perhaps that's why I've done some shaking up of my own. After almost 30 years I am going back to university...I'm looking forward to the new year with a lot of excitement and just a tiny bit of trepidation... new beginnings bring hope and growth. I'm ready for some of that.