Yes sir. I can so relate.
T-Shirt Tuesday 9/15/26
Tag: Aging
Approaching Autumn
Approaching Autumn often finds me in what I call (probably foolishly) my Melancholy Joy Frame of Mind or Temperament: 50% Despondency at Summer’s Goodbye and 50% Delight at Fall’s Coming Orange Cool.
And as I find myself getting close to Autumn this year, I realize that I too—and not just 2024—am in my September Stage of Life.
Approaching Autumn pulled no punches this morning when I unexpectedly ran into her in, of all places, the shared second floor hallway of our old Savannah apartment building.
About a week ago, Robert had placed a beautiful, summery-looking orange day lily with several blossoms in one of the hall windows.
This morn, when I opened our front door and walked out into the hallway, I saw her there in the window. Approaching Autumn herself.
I walked over cautiously to her. 
A bit dismayed at what I saw, I clumsily asked, “What’s going on? You don’t look like summer anymore.”
“Neal. It’s time. I’m Falling.”
“ I still don’t get it,” I complained. “You can’t just out of the blue … BE Fall. You are Summer.”
“Do I look like Summer now?”
I stood for a bit … stuck. In between seasons. HR growing anxious behind me to get on with our breakfast date.
Approaching Autumn, sensing my frustration, asked, “Weren’t you an English major in college? Didn’t you read Frost? He understood. Let him remind you:
I can’t say I completely and lovingly embraced her/his explanation. But I did find a melancholy beauty in its Truth.
I started to walk away when Approaching Autumn spoke her last: “And just so you know Neal, you don’t exactly look like summer anymore either.”
But she smiled as she made the comment. I released some pent-up tension and paid her back with a new season Melancholy Joy smile of my own.
“Let’s go,” I said to Robert.
And with creaky knees, I tackled the narrow 1850s stairwell and headed outside into yet another new day.
You Know
You know you’re getting old when you get invited to this …
(Ex-wife Donna and I graduated from incredibly beautiful Berry College in Rome, Georgia way back in 1974.)
At the same time, you’re out in your also-incredibly beautiful Savannah Square reading this …
Ho hum. Life goes on.
With beauty all around.
AOA — AGING’S ON THE AGENDA
A new blog category examining the frightening, exhilarating processes of our inevitable aging.
So here I am, sitting in my ever-faithful study chair …
… re-reading Andrew Weil’s Healthy Aging.
I first bought and read the book back in 2005 …
… when I was a young 53.
And now that I am a young … 71, I am understanding Weil better than before.
For this first post in the new category, I’ll let Weil speak:
“To age gracefully means to let nature take its course while doing everything in our power to delay the onset of age-related disease, or in other words, to live as long and as well as possible, then have a rapid decline at the end of life.”
I like that Aging Agenda.
HR and I belong to a wonderful church here in Savannah, Asbury Memorial. Recently we lost our church’s matriarch, Miss Virginia, at 99 years of age. On Sunday we celebrated her long incredible life.
Miss Virginia sang in the church choir up until a month before her demise. She lived “as long and as well as possible.”
Healthy Aging to Us All!
Gray … Wisdom?
So here I am, hiking at beautiful Kolomoki Mounds State Park in southwest Georgia …
I’m gazing into the distance.
Looking, desperately searching for it.
But where the heck is the wisdom?!
Countdown to Christmas: “Images of Peace” 12/6/22
For this blog category, “Countdown to Christmas: Images of Peace,” each day between December 1 and 25, I share some of our photography that invites rest, peace, tranquility and love.
Old Fellow Squeaky Peace by a Lazy Muddy Georgia River
Chattahoochee Bend, Georgia State Park.
Five Friday Happy Bringers 4/8/22
1. Breakfast fruit.
No, really, the actual fruit, not HR.
Okay, well maybe Robert too.
2. Our “garden.” We have an apartment in historic district Savannah. No actual yard space, so we do what we can do.
3. The ability to make choices.
4. Easter approaching.
5. Appreciating beauty, even aging, post-prime and broken beauty.
Wishing you a beautiful weekend!
Cactus Talking
About five years ago my cousin Jennie gave my 94-year old father this little Christmas cactus, after he had a serious fall. He was a resident at Cameron Hall Assisted Living in north Georgia at the time and in the early stages of dementia.
It sat on the window ledge beside his bed, keeping him company with small splashes of pink for a couple of years, until he had to move on to the Georgia War Veterans Nursing Home in Augusta. There was no place for the little plant there, so I brought him home for Robert and me to care for.
My dad passed away in 2020 during the height of the pandemic.
The little Christmas cactus (Schlumbergera x buckleyi) grew quiet. All green leaves. No tiny pink explosions. Hushed.
But this winter he sprang back to life. He started talking!
“Life goes on. The cycle continues. Just wait, you’ll see.”
T-shirt Tuesday: “I Survived”
Yesterday, I hit a chronological milestone. I turned 70. I should have worn this t-shirt …
I woke up to flowers from Robert.
Lots of flowers …
And cards from Robert, lots of cards (he has this tradition of giving more than just one card for special occasions, which at first I thought was a little over the top but now LOVE) …
And lots of new t-shirts from Robert (do you see a trend here?) …
A beautiful day. Greetings and best wishes from family and friends.
And a hand-me-down Apple Watch!
Finally, as I promised in my recent thrilling colonoscopy post, an update on the birthday steak dinner at Toni’s Steakhouse which the “doctor-helper nurse” suggested just before the “anesthesia nurse” put me to sleep.
We opted for the New York strip with broccoli and potato.
What a joy to have lived through the Sixties two times now!
NealEnJoy 