So what is being 58 really like?

So what is it being 58 really like?  Despite my denial about this, I fear the term “middle age” is something fading quickly unless I manage to make the age of 116.    There are some physical clues and also some changes in my outlook which might illuminate the answer.

The physical things are probably the easiest.  I had my haircut the other day.  Without even asking, the barber tidied up my eyebrows and this has happened before, much to the amusement of my family.  It was the barber using her electric trimmer to do my ears that took me by surprise.  Perhaps it is my fading eyesight which didn’t even alert me to my ears needing their own trim.

I am more wrinkled these days.  Other tale-tell signals include my nose is growing, I sleep more and feel the cold more.  I take longer to recover between runs than I did just a few years ago.

Perhaps it is the realisation that I actually have something “wrong with me” that has really brought all this home to me.  I refer, as regular readers will already know, my slightly dodgy kidneys.  Bits of our bodies which start to creak and fail are meant to be afflictions of much older people, not people of my age, surely?

Then there is the label of being “retired”.   This, I now discover, seems to infer I’m passed it and not simply a recognition that I’ve stepped back from my salaried career to take up noble causes, go on cruises and buy golf clubs.

It is my outlook and attitude which seem to have changed the most and this has also surprised me.  Having spent so much of my life towing the corporate line, I don’t have to anymore.  Now this hasn’t turned me into an out-and-out rebel overnight but it does make me more inclined to speak out when things are wrong, at least in my view.

I also have a far greater appreciation of the challenges faced by my daughters in their early twenties but they might find this impossible to comprehend.

I find myself thinking of our next house move.  Or should it be to a house?  Surely a flat would mean less maintenance and more in keeping with us being just the two of us?  Will our next move be our last, or a step towards some form of sheltered housing?

Heck no!  While I might be tempted to take things easy, the moment I give some things up will be the time I will feel as if I’m giving in.

So I think the next ten years will be critical for us.  While we have our elderly mothers to consider, we should be making the most of our [actively] retired years.  This means using our time well; achieving the elusive balance between hobbies, socialising, taking care of ourselves our family and our home, plus being generous with our time.