I was just sharing with a friend how important it is at our time of life to get out and be with other people. It's how we can fight the blue meanies. And I found this year it doesn't even have to be people I already know, when going daily to the senior lunch reduced-rate program. I was making new friends who I wouldn't have run into otherwise, since many of them had polar opposite views on things. Good for me, good for everyone!
Plus once I started attending lunch at the Lakeview Center for Active Aging, I was more interested in some of their other programs, and now attend weekly sit-n-b-fit and chair yoga sessions. Lunch costs $1.50 with the Council on Aging subsidizing it, and exercise and other programs are free. Incidentally, our lunches are catered by a local Asheville restaurant, The Moose Café.
And then there's Lake Tomahawk with water fowl and a path to walk around...as well as people walking dogs of every imaginable breed. I have loved taking photos of the lake in different seasons too.
December 2022
Spring 2024 Canada Goose and Cherry Tree at slightly drained Lake for construction work on dam
Summer 2023 looking south from the gazebo
Autumn looking at the lake, 2023
Last week with a crane helping the dam repairs in the distance. But notice the lake is full of water again!
I often plan a lunch outing with friends who don't go to the Lakeview Center at least once a week. I'm so glad to have made some close friends from my church and from the Clay studio. My interests are always given a boost by seeing and sharing with them.
I admit to not attending church as often these days, since I've lived here almost 17 years and that used to be more important for my socialization. I remember well how I'd look forward to coffee hour after the service (was that the main reason I went?) Then the pandemic gave us the double-whammy of virtual church services, and we lost the chance to mingle and discuss whatever was on our minds afterward.
I hope my friends who are higher than me on the ladder of life, one just turned 90 and the other best friend is 84...will continue to share their insights and humor with us. Gosh, their humor is certainly something to be around! Maybe that's a lesson to us all.
My message to folks in their 60s is to take advantage of everything you can and want to do. It gets harder to keep doing everything you want in your 70s, or to recuperate from injuries or illness. Enough said.
Today's quote:
Every living being is an engine geared to the wheelwork of the universe. Though seemingly affected only by its immediate surrounding, the sphere of external influence extends to infinite distance.
—Nikola Tesla
