Anita Birt's Note Book on AGING

My son visited for five days and has now returned home. I miss him because he is interesting and amusing and a good son. I am blessed.

As I age I realize how important family ties are. Not just immediate children, grandchildren and great grandchildren but nieces, nephews and cousins. A family network. Mine spreads across Canada and into England. It's not as if I'm constantly in touch but knowing they are there is comforting. Because I live on the west coast without freezing temperatures and the daffodils are in full bloom (It's late March) I phone my cousin, Helen, in St. John's, Newfoundland, to ask how she's coping with the latest dump of snow. She copes and is in good spirits. Helen is my age so she is not a spring chicken.

Aging can be a blessing or a terrible trial depending on the state of one's health. I look around me and wonder at the good humor of men and women in poor health, coping with pain, yet they keep on going. Much better than the alternative! They often sit outside on a sunny day and soak up some Vitamin D that does wonders for the spirit. The weather feels like spring to-day. A warm feel to the air. A nice change from the  wild gale force winds and churning sea that's plagued us this spring.

Victoria has been described as "God's Waiting Room," because we keep hanging on past our "best before date."Because I want to finish the book I'm writing and have another ticking over inside my head, I  hope to make it before I disappear from the face of the earth and find myself in the stars.

Speaking of stars.  This is from The Stardust Revolution by Jacob Berkowitz. "Organic chemistry starts back in the stars, where we have a carbon rich environment." This is a quote by the amazing astrochemist, Lucy Ziurys, whose work astounds me because I have to struggle to understand it. I keep turning the pages and little by little I understand more.

 Another facet of my aging, I have a little nap now and then, usually in the morning while I'm reading the newspaper. "Banking crisis in Cyprus." I didn't know their banks provided safe havens for Russian oligarchs  with ill gotten gain to stash away. Best news to-day. Two giant Panda bears have arrived in Canada. They will take up their new home in the Greater Toronto area zoo.

Anita
www.anitabirt.com