Pinpoint Existence

From high enough above earth’s surface where weather satellites roam, I’m just a pinpoint on the earth. I am insignificant, indistinguishable compared to the whole. In fact, I am so much more than that, as we all are regardless of how we may feel on a given day.

Many elderly individuals come to feel isolated, unnecessary, unneeded. Their life, once vibrant with activity and involvement, has shrunk to inconsequential daily routines –and waiting. Waiting for the phone to ring, waiting for the mail to come, waiting for life to pick up once again. Unless they make active choices to amend their life to include new interests and pursuits, new connections, new associations, they will slowly wither, fading to a mere pinpoint existence.

Within the first 60 days of my retirement, I chose to expand my life by including an exercise program I travel to three times a week. While there I enjoy the easy banter and friendly exchange between the all-women participants while getting my heart rate up, strengthening my inner core and arm and leg muscles. I signed up for a second exercise class which I attend online at home twice a week. Also enjoyable, I appreciate the trainer’s big smile and affable comments during our workout. Her husband shadows her during our sessions, providing occasional moments of amusement. We all wave and say our thank-yous while she says goodbye to each of us by name.

I also began participating in a local library book club, for now on Zoom, and yesterday I joined a regional parks book club. The book selections are intriguing, mind expanding, and fun to read. I value the analyses and conversation over content by the other members, making my reading time more than my usual solitary activity.

Besides being good for my physical and mental health, these activities have introduced me to people I otherwise would not have encountered; new faces and fresh outlooks on life. Meanwhile, I started this blog which keeps me connected to work friends I no longer see in person and opens the possibility of new readers who might share their thoughts on what I have written. My life is not shrinking; it’s growing in new directions.

The COVID-19 pandemic continues to dampen extended activities outside my home. However, I am certainly not shut in. I go for a walk almost daily, sometimes with my grandsons who live nearby. I visit across the fence with a neighbor who brings me tomatoes during the summer and watches to make sure I don’t forget to close my garage door at night. On friendly terms with my landlord who lives in the other side of our duplex, we exchange thoughts whenever we see each other in addition to texts and photos from his trips to the coast. I travel to my son’s home ½ hour away regularly to eat lunch and watch a movie with him and his family on their big screen TV. There’s a standing invitation to visit on the weekend with my daughter and her family who live just ½ mile away and, when that isn’t enough, their two boys opt to stay the weekend at Grams’.

Though there’s a lot of messed up things in this world, and no shortage of bad things happening to good people, I remain incorrigibly buoyant and hopeful. Much of my future depends on me, on how I choose to live and interact with my surroundings and the opportunities afforded me. My intention is to embrace each and every opening to expand and magnify my little pinpoint of existence on this still wonderful planet, my home.