While on my journey of aging gracefully I got an email today from a friend. Included in the email was a Clark Gable photo and quote:

The only reason they come to see me is that I know life is great – and they know I know it.

I sit here at my keyboard, simply allowing Mr. Gable’s quote to percolate with me; and the percolating rhythms add to my feeling great.

Yes, here I’m in my 60s, feeling mighty good; in fact, I’m feeling GREAT because like Clark Gable, I know life is great.

I remember when I first saw Clark Gable on the big screen; he was  playing the role of Rhett Butler in the movie classic, Gone with the Wind.

And perhaps like many of Clark Gable’s fans, I too was picking up on his knowing-life-is-great attitude.

Reflecting back on my early years, my aging role models didn’t necessarily emanate the feelings of life is great.

My grandmother’s side of the family were my aging role models, providing me with pictures and stories as to what the later years of life might look like.

Uncle Mart & Aunt Emma; Aunt Murl and Uncle Gil; and Marie and Clyde . . .

Going to visit them was not one of my favorite things to do. They sat and talked; they talked and sat. They talked about what ailed them and what used to be.

Me as a little kid, I loved to run around. I loved to laugh. I loved action, filled with oodles and oodles of joy.

Aunt Murl, God bless her, was challenged by my joyful presence, and let me know on several occasions that my exuberant, spirited actions were most inappropriate.

Yeah, Aunt Murl let me know through her words and actions that being a good boy in her presence meant that I was to sit quietly.

One time around age 3 I attempted to offer Aunt Murl my point of view. Oh, my goodness . . . I can still see her finger shaking at me and the earrings, hanging from her big earlobes, bouncing in perfect rhythm with her shaking finger.

I learned to stifle my music in the presence of Aunt Murl.

Now all these years later, I recognize a life lesson Aunt Murl was teaching me. She chose to live in her sorrows and not to live in joy.

Yes, I admit I am a revolutionary kind of guy . . . revolutionizing the how to play in life’s Act 3 . . . simply letting out the music of the heart.

With aging gracefully – my heart’s music is pure joy; to me, life is great whatever my age may be. And just as I was at three years of age, I still feel my heart’s joy motivating me to move around, creating the music of joyful laughter!

Loving you,

Robert, aka Bob