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I am about to turn 62 in 5 months. I have no family nor children. I work part time as a substitute teacher to elementary children. So I get my fix from the younger set two times a week. Quite frankly, I could not do more than that. Two days of screaming, drama, little hellions is enough....but everyday I leave the school one little kid, or more, runs up to me a gives me a big hug!
I tell the principle that I want what you are paying them to give me these hugs. At the end of the day I question whether I will return. Then the kids hug me. I return.
My best two friends now are reaching 80. I want to be like them at 80. Young at heart, smart, liberal in mind, generous.
My best three furry friends are 11, 11, and three. They are young at heart, smart, liberal in mind, generous.
I suspect I will lose the 80s, the 11s and then I will then have only a 3 year old.
I have read that you are the average of the 5 people you are closest to. So what does that make me. Do animals count?! LOL
Of well, I hope that I do not crawl into a hole when they go. Life is for the living. Until it is not.
Similar situation with dogs. We rescued and had 7. Lost 4 and have 3 left. 16, 12, 11 small dogs. I am 62 and plan to rescue senior dogs off Petfinder as long as I can. Did it 3 times and it was beyond fulfilling to give them a wonderful life for the last round.
Get used to it. I had a grandfather who lived to 98 and my mother lived to 95. In both cases, I saw them outlive their whole generation. My grandfather just grew isolated. My mother was a social person who made friends easily, but even she became disheartened as friend after friend died.
Well, OP, existence is constantly sending you reminders. Death is inevitable. Death is inevitable. Death is inevitable.
Maybe it's time to actually start preparing to it? Not financially, worldly. Spiritually? You have lots of time being retired, I am envious.... Lamenting over passage of others does YOU no good, you know.
Not to veer off-topic, but I strongly believe in a life beyond physical death and I often speak of how I am looking forward to being with my family, friends, and pets who have passed on. I don't dwell too much on who is gone as I feel I will be with them again. LOL
Why do you think this? What sense does it make? Why would you think you'll be with family, friends, and pets after death?
Well, OP, existence is constantly sending you reminders. Death is inevitable. Death is inevitable. Death is inevitable.
Maybe it's time to actually start preparing to it? Not financially, worldly. Spiritually? You have lots of time being retired, I am envious.... Lamenting over passage of others does YOU no good, you know.
Yes, this message becomes quite strong in one's older years. (although one person posted and claimed that they have not ever even thought about whether they are afraid of death or not)
How does one prepare spiritually for death, ukrkoz, as you suggest we do?
And I don't even know what spiritually means actually. But the above question is more pertinent.
If this is literally true - at least half - then something very strange and unusual is going on. I believe you are too young for a lot of the males in your graduating class to have lost their lives in Vietnam. Or perhaps I am wrong about that and the Vietnam War is the cause of a lot of the deaths? Are the ones who have died mostly male? Have there been a lot of automobile accidents? A lot of heart attacks?
Or perhaps it is just a statistical anomaly that, by the "luck" of the draw, your graduating class has been struck down? I am really curious about this and so I would appreciate any light you are able to shine on the experience of your class.
Well, there are subcultures of middle aged white people that are badly reversing the trend of increasing longevity. A lot of those early passings are self inflicted, in either a traumatic outcome sense or a chronic sense leading to long term decline and eventual demise due to one or another side effect.
I'm in my 50s and at least half my high school graduating class has passed away! So I guess I'm prepared.
I'm glad I didn't attend YOUR school!
My graduating class of 1978 had 416 in it. I keep in touch with a lot of my old classmates, and to my knowledge, we've only lost about a dozen.
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