Unexpected blooms in the patio garden. I like making my morning inspections. There are new webs to admire, new blossoms, everything glows in the early light.
The Path is going to make her summer debut any day now.
It's Sunday. The air has cooled which means no daytime a/c needed. I love having my windows open to the outside.
Makes my kitchen vantage place seem practically outside. I am RIGHT here cutting & humming.
Wyatt had a dirt massage earlier.
Roll roll roll then UP on the clean tablecloth he goes. I let him. sigh.
One of the mamas from one of my classes sent me this dear photo of her 2 girlies working intently in their little journals. There is something very right about that. Something that makes me feel all smiley inside. Arty dining room table memories in progress.
A 72 year old someone from FTB sent me this journal page.
I am interested in knowing what 72 year olds think. There needs to be more of them telling us. 72 is a foreign country I haven't visited yet, but I'm so curious. If I'm going there someday, I need to get my maps and guidebooks in order now. Maybe we speak the same language. Think the same thoughts.
MYGOD! Those girls working on their journals is beyond the beyond!! HOW utterly FAB! If I were 72, my upper set would fall out onto the floor.
You’ve got to be tickled as anything!
LOVELY comments! I just turned 58 and honestly, I struggle with it. How DID I get this old this quickly? The road ahead is no longer “limitless” like it was when I was 30 and 40. Yep, I struggle with it. And how much lower will my boobs actually go?? But really, if you have your health, everything else is gravy. I look for quality now, rather than quantity. Thanks for all the great thoughts and advice ladies! Wyatt, you’re a caution – I have the picture of you screaming through the screen door as a screensaver at work. j’adore! xxoo
I am so glad you put a link to this post as I missed it first time around.
As to Wyatt……what the heck…..life is too short…….who cares about a dirty massage.
Your craft monkeys look wonderful and happy thanks to their nurturing teacher.
As to the age thing…..I am 65 according to my birth certificate but I am 40 mentally and physically and in my heart. I have chosen not to use the word “old”. As to the body changing, etc., I look at them as opportunities to be thankful that it isn’t any worse than it is and I can still be out and about. Life really is all about what you make of it when the challenges come up and I am living proof after being cancer free for 16 years and surviving a heart attack eight years ago. I really do believe it is all in your attitude about this “age’ thing….it really doesn’t matter what your age is….it is how you live each day.
Thank You, to Mary Ann for what she has created and to everyone of you who posted comments to “happy {sunday}”. I am so very grateful for your inspiration and insight.
i am so so so pleased and delighted by all of the comments this post is getting. i love knowing i have all of you fine women reading this here blog. its just doggone fabulous!
xo to each one of you…
My 72nd birthday was June 16th. I’ve been this ancient age for a whole month today! Do I feel 72? No way, even tho’ my breasts are in a race to see who can get to the southern realm of my body first. Instead of one chin, I now have two…what good this extra chin is remains to be seen. Today I spent hiking in the mountains and birding with a group of friends. We were treated to a lovely bird nest with four wee eggs, the nest of the Dark Eyed Junco, the Oregon subspecies that was not know to nest here (southern NV) This is one of several passions in life. I’m an avid lifelong reader, I am a watercolor artist…the perennial beginner because I’m always learning something new. I’ve always been a curious, interested, person…never bored, like my own company. My immediate circle of friends span in age from a 40 yrs. old mother of year old twins, a Chinese 42 yr. old computer geek, a 53 yr. old single mom retired from the Air Force, a 71 yr. old black woman formerly of NYC, a retired OR nurse, and me. The thread that binds us is a love of knitting. We meet every Sun. at the Starbucks coffee shop inside our Barnes & Noble book store.
The older you get the less baggage you drag around with you…you speak your mind, you have opinions and are not interested in being PC about them. You can get up in the middle of the night and eat without guilt…you live more in the moment because you realize that each moment is finite and precious. You are more easily entertained. Getting a good nights sleep is the utmost luxury. A bowl of Cheerios with a good cup of tea is a great evening meal. I do as I please, go where I please, could care less what others think or approve. My days are full and happy. I live a life of contentment. It’s ALL GOOD. So when you get to the continent of 72 in your travels, stop by and have a good laugh and a cuppa tea with me!
Joan, out where the west gets wild!
I wrote this poem when I was a youngster of 55. I’m now 77. I enjoy my writing group, my art group, games with my card friends, my family, and life in general. When I look in the mirror, to my utter amazement I see an old lady. Inside I feel the same as I did all those years ago!
It’s wonderful to be older,
And oh, so very wise…
But I observe I have acquired
Some bags beneath my eyes.
My years of diligent labor
Have made me efficient about the house…
But now, when I look in the mirror,
My knees appear to blouse.
After all my years of practice,
I know quite the proper thing to say…
But I note on close inspection,
My hair is turning gray.
Seniority has its privileges
Of travel beneath foreign flags…
But, when I check my silhouette,
I believe my bottom sags.
When youth defers to me,
I think it’s really sweet…
But, along with that, it’s sad to see
My skin’s begun to pleat.
I’m now loaded with self-confidence
When before a group I speak
But, as I leave the podium,
I hear my joints begin to creak.
Yes, aging has its privileges
And all in all they’re not so bad…
But they would really please me
With that youthful body I had.
Achieving 65 this summer! You don’t get older, you just get better … honestly … wiser, more tolerant, more adventurous, more devil may care attitude! You are able to speak your truth, follow your heart, set health boundaries, with no guilt … it’s all gone. I create more than I ever have in my life, I have more confidence than I ever had in my life, I see situations from a detached point of view, have lost any judgement I may have carried, still laugh until tears roll down my cheeks and think up sillier things to do than when I was younger, and actually do them. My knees have objected to all this, and both need to be replaced. That was a bit of a shock because my spirit is still 10. They can be fixed. How lucky are we in this day and age. So rock on Mary Ann … it’s a wonderful ride. Live in the moment, love to the limit and beyond, create what’s in your wildest dreams. Find your tribe and live with them. They will always love and understand you. Thanks for an absolutely spendifilous journey … I will continue to make journals and play with them for eons because of you. Such a gift you are. Sending hugs and laughter for the journey, Donna
I can’t wait to be 72. Every year gets better so I’m going to be rock star by then! 😀
“God, I’m fabulous.” 🙂 🙂 🙂 All I have to say is — “You go, girl. Fabulous is right.” 🙂
Joyce, I hope you will contemplate selling this page as a poster. I’ll be first in line to buy one to hang where I see it every day!
— Vicki, who is 59 and spent the 4th-of-July weekend with a trio of octogenarians who are full of interests and curiosity and laughter
What happy pages…then I scroll down and before I read the caption about the DIRTY member of the “posse” I said…ohh heavens he is filthy……then when I read it I CRACKED up cause then I realized he was on the TABLE….but hey, if you saw where my cats lay ,,,well,,,I understand totally:) ….he made me laugh. I even showed him to one of mine…they looked at me perplexed like,,,hey,,he´s on the TABLE…
cooool. See,,,,we can go on the table too………………great….oh well, sigh………………
as far as how old anyone is….we are all as old as we feel. I have seen 20 year olds who move like an 80 year old with severe joint problems and 80 year olds who move like they have fire in their feet….so age is just a number if you ask me.
Oh my gosh, how I LOVE coming here! This is the FUN place I can’t wait to come to in my day!! I just love this group of girls that have flocked together here, Mary Ann. All laughing and chirping.
I agree with all of you above. I feel like I’m 17 in a 62 year old body, and do my best to try not to worry about what is considered as “age appropriate”. Creativity helps with that enormously. I enjoy being 62, except it is a bit more difficult getting up the stairs. But I don’t know, that might just be me, because my mom is 80-something and is still climbing ladders to paint her rooms.
Anyway, I’ve always felt that there is something wonderful, and special, and amazingly fabulous about EVERY age, and every DAY for that matter. I’ve enjoyed all the ones I’ve investigated so far, and look forward to the wonderfullness of the ones still to come.
Thanks for this GREAT place you’ve created here to gather, Mary Ann, and
for all the fun and beauty you share!!
And doing art and having a creative bent helps to keep us all young and eager. I work with a 72 Y/O fellow artist who keeps me young with her sense of adventure and “what if’s”. Aging helps to free us up in many ways. BTW, in regards to Wyatt, your story made me smile knowingly, we have to laugh and go with the flow with our fellow inhabitants. Don’t you think they know when something is clean and they can create their own “art”?!
Don’t worry. You’ll still be you. Not much really changes, except maybe you get creakier or more heartburn than usual. 72 sounds decrepit, but here I am, still little me encased in this 71 year old vehicle that gets me around. And when I look in the mirror its the 15 year old that looks back. Denial is helpful sometimes. Artists are especially lucky since we can keep on slopping the glue or stitching up a storm quite a long while.
Phoning in from 61. We do all speak the same language, although with different accents. I am often bewildered by the view I catch of my grandmother (I adored her but she was OLD) in shop windows or my mirror. That can’t be me…..IT CAN’T. I don’t feel as old as I look nor do I look as old as I am. Whatever the age, the Craft Monkeys meeting here are all of the same tribe, or clan or pride!! Yes, PRIDE!
Those of us father along the path will leave cairns for those of you catching up. They will be artfully decorated and you’ll be able to easily spot them!
Love the page you shared! She is indeed fabulous. What you wrote below the photo reminded me of how much I miss my grandmas and wish they were still around so I could get some more stories and advice! Guess I need to branch out and meet some new wise ladies to share with!
I’ll weigh in on the “no a/c in the daytime” comment that you made.
I’m in upstate SC and it is HOT here.
All.
Day.
Long.
No a/c in the day?
I would wilt to be sure. The humidity is so high that it feels as if the air weighs a ton. My sunglasses fog up when I step outside! I’m loving your FTB class Ms. Moss!
Thank you!
I have hit the big 5-7 and I don’t have a clue on the inside that I am that old. God, how did that happen? Anyway, yes, all the Wise Ones writing before me are speaking the truth about what I have experienced so far. My best friend of 52 years and I still giggle like we are the five-year-olds we were when we met and in our hearts we are. Looking forward to all the days allotted me living to the fullest and enjoying every minute! Cheers, girls!
I’m 72 and still going strong (at least in my mind!). I would love to stay here and wait for you to catch up to me. But, time marches on and I am thankful for every day the good Lord gives me and try to make the most of it! I’m very good at entertaining myself; still have a long bucket list and just love the life I live. Cheers to all of you lovely ladies. . .
Wyatt is your problem child, isn’t he?
(Sorry, I’m still too young to weigh in on the granny knickers debate.)
Oh, I am loving this page!! Says it all. At 58 I am heading there fast, but still think I am 25!!
In my head I wear delicious 5″ red stilettoes, have the bod of an 18 year old, wear thongs and sexy underwear, though in reality it is all heading south, sleep in Jane Austin nightwear and DO wear big knickers. It hasn’t been plain sailing getting to where I am, but I am glad I am here and am thankful to wake up each morning, God willing.
Here’s to the next twenty or thirty years girls!!
We ARE gorgeous!!
67 is a good country. I’m sorry I won’t be here when you arrive at this place MaryAnn but I’m so very glad we speak the same language right now. I love and like me just as I am (for the most part!) and feel graced that my path crossed yours.
And yes, to all they said. The wise ones above me.
Oh yeah! we’re going to Hungary next summmer!! guess where that idea came from!!?!??
Hey! At 72 I’m just a YOUNG person in old packaging. The only difference between the little girls journaling in the picture above my journal page and me is MILEAGE and HINDSIGHT! I have more than they do. Mileage gives one experience and expertise, but if one loses their inner child nothing else matters. Yes, Mary Ann, we speak the same language and think the same thoughts. Believe me, I do NOT fantacize about sensible shoes, granny nighties, or big-butt underwear. I have to WEAR sensible shoes, keep warm in granny nighties, and I’ve worn big-butt underwear my entire life! When reality hits fantasy, more often than not, reality wins out. But how we think, how we dream, how we LIVE is exactly how we thought, dreamt, and lived as young women. Anyone else, of a certain age, want to weigh in on this?
I’m not 72 yet but I’ll be 68 at the end of summer. I have to remind myself at times that I’m not 12 years old, or 30 years old, or any of the other ages because I still like to play and giggle and do silly things. I hope we all speak the same language and think the same thoughts because most of us get to 72 sooner or later!