Today was one of those perfectly ordinary days where two friends meet and make cards together. It was a day where the windows could be opened and the furnace turned off. We worked and visited until lunch time and then back to our card making. It is a passion to make each one better than the last.

Why card making? It doesn’t seem worthwhile in the present world that has gone mad as far as I’m concerned. And yet there is the solace of doing things with our hands that will go out in the mail, intended to make someone happy.

My friend and I are the same age (almost) and we are not about to wear a housecoat all day, watching television and letting a precious day go by. I am opposed to laziness or lack of direction. The time I’ve spent on this earth found the end of each day with something……..yes, something, accomplished.

My friend has lost her fingernails with a disease I’m not familiar with….but she has several kinds of immune malfunction. Her hands are still gardening, making cards and keeping her active in the things that mean most to her. As we sit to work on our cards I glance over to see that her impairment does not keep her from doing anything. I mean…….anything.

My fingers are getting along in the battle of osteoporosis. They are going in every direction anymore. Once they were pretty as well as useful. Now they look like so many family members whose hands have gone the same way. I am thankful they are still able to satisfy my love of crochet, knitting and quilting. I shall always be happy if they continue to allow doing the things that mean the most to me. And if not……there will be other things to take their place.

Aging is not a time for complaining about mental and physical changes…..it’s a time to use what we have and to be grateful for the years of service they have provided. I vowed to be forever young and being useful is the catalyst that takes me there. Ever learning, being grateful for what has been but looking ahead to what the future holds. We all have a future that will be determined by how we lived…..and how we died. We can be young or old ……it’s our call.

Age is a matter of consent…………

Essentially Esther