This is very good advice: that the joy of life is in ups and downs - you don’t get one without the other. Having said that, we are moving to Greece later this month, to a mountain village. I’ve been planning it for almost 10 years, so it’s not a rush escape. I came to the US for an adventure 25 years ago, but the current situation (administration) is so awful that it has hastened our departure. Here’s to different ups and downs!
Thanks for responding, and best wishes on your move to Greece--a mountain village sounds inviting. Ten years in the planning stage will, I'm sure, ease the transition.
I identify with a lot of what you wrote. I'm 72 and have been living in Bosnia for over 22 years. If I was totally honest with myself I was running away from the UK and life back then. I was lucky that after 3 years here I met someone and life changed. My body is starting to slow up but the mind seems still very much of an early adult. Frustrating combination at times. I'll get Pema's book. Your posts are a tonic. Bests, David
Thanks for responding, David. Even if you were running from life in the UK, after 22 years in Bosnia, it would seem that you made a good decision, and that's the main thing.
Wow, excellent, old age is nothing like you think it’s going to be, I am 62, my body feels like 82, my brain feels like I am 16. I always thought I would be settled by now, but change seems to be constant both external and internal. I also have become more aware of history as I get older thinking about my life in different decades I am struck by how fast everything is changing. Thinking back it’s almost like the past wasn’t just years ago but also a completely different place. I have lived in this house now for 22 years and still try to remember what it was like the day I moved in and compare my moods to today. Seems like maybe I have become someone else. I still like it but the feeling is completely different. The thing I do remember about my younger self was optimism, unbridled potential to shape my environment and existence. I realize I have become a cranky old man, rather jaded and set. Might be time for me to move to France.
I don’t think people of the world realize how stressful it is to be American now. It’s like you try to forget, or tell yourself it doesn’t matter or that you can’t really do anything but yet you still feel anxious about it. Lately I been thinking that we seem to be on the precipice of world change but I realize it’s felt like that to me my whole life.
Thanks for responding, Eric. I know what you mean about the surprises that come with old age--essentially the inspiration for my (in progress) memoir--Old Age is a Foreign Country. My daughter is in her late fifties and it seems only yesterday that I was that age. Times passes ever faster.
This is very good advice: that the joy of life is in ups and downs - you don’t get one without the other. Having said that, we are moving to Greece later this month, to a mountain village. I’ve been planning it for almost 10 years, so it’s not a rush escape. I came to the US for an adventure 25 years ago, but the current situation (administration) is so awful that it has hastened our departure. Here’s to different ups and downs!
Thanks for responding, and best wishes on your move to Greece--a mountain village sounds inviting. Ten years in the planning stage will, I'm sure, ease the transition.
I identify with a lot of what you wrote. I'm 72 and have been living in Bosnia for over 22 years. If I was totally honest with myself I was running away from the UK and life back then. I was lucky that after 3 years here I met someone and life changed. My body is starting to slow up but the mind seems still very much of an early adult. Frustrating combination at times. I'll get Pema's book. Your posts are a tonic. Bests, David
Thanks for responding, David. Even if you were running from life in the UK, after 22 years in Bosnia, it would seem that you made a good decision, and that's the main thing.
Wow, excellent, old age is nothing like you think it’s going to be, I am 62, my body feels like 82, my brain feels like I am 16. I always thought I would be settled by now, but change seems to be constant both external and internal. I also have become more aware of history as I get older thinking about my life in different decades I am struck by how fast everything is changing. Thinking back it’s almost like the past wasn’t just years ago but also a completely different place. I have lived in this house now for 22 years and still try to remember what it was like the day I moved in and compare my moods to today. Seems like maybe I have become someone else. I still like it but the feeling is completely different. The thing I do remember about my younger self was optimism, unbridled potential to shape my environment and existence. I realize I have become a cranky old man, rather jaded and set. Might be time for me to move to France.
I don’t think people of the world realize how stressful it is to be American now. It’s like you try to forget, or tell yourself it doesn’t matter or that you can’t really do anything but yet you still feel anxious about it. Lately I been thinking that we seem to be on the precipice of world change but I realize it’s felt like that to me my whole life.
Thanks for responding, Eric. I know what you mean about the surprises that come with old age--essentially the inspiration for my (in progress) memoir--Old Age is a Foreign Country. My daughter is in her late fifties and it seems only yesterday that I was that age. Times passes ever faster.