Winter of Life

Ruminating the seasons I realise that I am in the autumn of my life, my daughters are in the summer of theirs and my parents in their winter.  As nature replaces vigour with wisdom we go through life’s cycles.

I am in a reflective mood as I enter my new age, measuring my achievements of the past and planning changes for the future.  Family and friendships come high on my list as I decide what I want to Be, Do or Have this coming spring.  Nurturing our relationships comes natural to most women.  We are hard-wired to be this way which is why it is so important to manage our relationships well, keeping us in balance.

New friendships are full of surprises.  I have a very dear friend Doris who is in the winter of her life.  She is ninety one and is my greatest inspiration.  I have only known her for a couple of years but feel I have known her all my life.  Like anyone of her great age she suffers with aches and pains, though she laughs and brushes them off with a ‘Well I can’t complain.’

When I spend time with her I am calm, happy, contented and completely myself.  I never want to leave.  She doesn’t try to impart her wisdom on me, she is just wise and I just recognise it.  They say ‘teach them how you live’ and she does just that.  She is calm, happy, contented and completely herself.  She has life sorted.

Doris doesn’t sit back and observe life; she takes each day and decides what she is going to make of it, grateful that she has been granted it.  She has lots of projects on the go, sending parcels abroad, growing tomato plants from seed and emailing her friends and family overseas.  She cooks her home grown vegetables and is always being visited by her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.  She is a treasure. She has an open mind and is open to new ideas.  She is an optimist.  I also know she is very rare. 

You don’t come across a Doris every day and I am lucky to know her.   She has given me hope that if I am fortunate to reach the winter of my life that I have the most amazing role model to emulate. Just now, she makes me feel like I’m just a bairn, which of course I am from her perspective.

‘But like of each thing that in season grows.’  - William Shakespeare

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