Our Seniors magazine has some great stories, as well as these wise words for those over 55. They come from the heart, Elizabeth Gilbert’s heart actually.
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“This is a line my (73 year-old) mother said to me the other day, while she was issuing a gentle warning not to fall into the trap of letting your life get smaller as you get older.
“She was talking about how frustrating she finds it that so many of her peers stop making goals and long-term plans for adventure and exploration in their lives.
Instead, they begin shutting down, making their lives smaller, and their minds smaller too. She got so weary of listening to them making self-deprecating jokes about how old they were, and how much their bodies hurt, and how bad their hearing and eyesight was getting. She felt they had surrendered to age far too soon.
“As you get older, this is the time to seize as much life, joy, adventure, learning and novelty as you possibly can. As my mum said, "I hate seeing people slide themselves into the grave far before their time. Death will come when it comes — but it's crazy to sit around waiting for it. If you're not dead yet, you're not done yet."
“My mum thinks that everyone should have a five-year plan for their lives, and also a ten-year plan, and a twenty-year plan, and that you should never stop making these plans, even as you age.
“It's inspiring.
“I have heard people speak of their lives as if they were finished at 30, done at 40, washed up at 50, too late to start over at 60, no more chances at 70.
“Don't make your life smaller as the years pass. If it's time to start over, then it's time to start over. If you aren't where you planned to be, then it's time to make a new plan.”
With the helpful information and jam packed ideas in the Bendigo Seniors Magazine, you will be able to make a great start to new plans and an inspiring 2018.
Read more of the great content here
And then you are sure to want to follow the life and times of our feature story chap, John Bacon.
A carefree childhood plus lessons learnt through his wheeling and dealing teen years, set up this Woolcock Avenue treasure hunter for life, as he told Dawn Rasmussen recently.
John has made a comfortable home for his buttercup yellow 1934 Chevy Master Roadster. It has a rag top, dodgy brakes and no seat belts, but the luxury of a glove box and chrome headlights. With fuel consumption a steady 30 miles to the gallon, it’s still a beauty.
A Kangaroo Flat pupil of the state and high schools, John says it is good to be living back in the Flat, not too far from where he grew up.
It has been an amazing 66 year journey.
Like most kids of the early 1960s, John had a ferret and would ride his bike to Big Hill to catch rabbits to sell.
“I quite liked the ferret as a pet, but one fateful day it bit me on the ear, so it was sold and I moved on from the rabbits,” John says.
A paper run, collecting refundable glass bottles, and forays into the Kangaroo Flat tip were other temporary weekend careers, and then his next door neighbour, Gordon Fisher, who knew all about the tip runs, suggested he might like to get into scrap metal.