Daily Grit by Wes Thorp

Why am I not dead yet?

I admit that I've struggled with the transition from the having a day job part of the world to being retired.

It has made me think more about my own mortality and it has helped me clarify what is really important in my life.  I've tried to shuck off everything in my life that I find unimportant and do with intention those things that matter to me. 

I feel that if I didn't do this then I would more than likely start losing traction in my daily life and start looking at the question posed by Michael Hyatt in his blog post, "Why You Aren't Dead Yet."  He's the CEO at Thomas Nelson Publishers and has effectively engaged blogging and other social media to develop relationships around the world.

In this post, he describes a conversation with an elderly friend who Hyatt describes as being a source of wisdom and as a "living treasure."  His friend asked him if he felt that he had anything left to contribute to the world.  Were his best days over?

How do you respond?

Hyatt then shares: " I then began to make an argument that I first learned in The Noticer by Andy Andrews. In the book, Jones, the personification of wisdom, makes six points to Willow, a seventy-six year old lady, who had given up hope that she had anything left to contribute. (see chapter 6, pp. 83–85)."

The six points he lists are:

1. God has a purpose for every single person.
2. You won’t die until that purpose is fulfilled.
3. If you are still alive, then you haven’t completed what you were put on earth to do.
4. If you haven’t completed what you were put on earth to do, then your very purpose hasn’t been fulfilled.
5. If your purpose hasn’t been fulfilled, then the most important part of your life is still ahead.
6. You have yet to make your most important contribution.

Michael Hyatt, thank you for sharing that.  As a 63-year-old baby-boomer still trying to grab onto this senior citizen thing and onto my new place in life, I find this post helpful, really helpful.  I will check out the book.  I hope others do too.

Do you or somebody you know share the same challenge?

Weight Watchers Online: I continue to lose my baby-boomer belly

I stepped on the scales this morning as part of my Weight Watchers Online program and found that I lost a pound this past week.  This takes me to just about twenty pounds down since I started at the end of July.

I started this as a member of the first-class of baby-boomers and knowing that being overweight was a big risk-factor for stuff I don't want to mess with if I can help it.

Doing this has not been hard.  I eat ordinary food, but I keep track of what I eat to stay within a number of points assigned to me for each day.  I do this online using either my computer or my iPod Touch. 

To reach my goal, I still have to lose another 20 pounds to reach the maintenance part of this which may be harder than taking it off.

I'm sharing this as an encouragement to others who face the need for weight loss and to keep myself accountable.  

I'm expecting . . . our first grandchild!

Got the news yesterday: Krista, our super-daughter, is pregnant with our first grandchild.  Wow!  Super-cool.  We are excited for her and for our son-in-law Adam.

Gladys and I were vibrating with excitement after we got the news yesterday.  Super-wife was off tutoring when our pregnant daughter called and told me.  I was looking out our living room picture window when she dropped the news.  My smile had to light up our portion of our street. 

We are ready.  For me, thinking about myself as a grandfather has been a transition.  A few years ago, I never thought of myself as being old enough to be a grandparent.  Now I can see clearly that I am and I can see that I can revel in my new role.

Any advice out there for expectant grandparents? 

I thank God for my family, my wife and my kids, including Adam, my son-in-law.  Now our family gets bigger with a baby.

I've been practicing in my head what I will be saying to my friends.  "Hey, let me show you pictures of my grandchild."  It sounds pretty good.

I'm going to like this.  And to Krista and Adam.  Enjoy every minute of it.  It's a real "wow" experience to do something like this together.  Take it all in.

Baby-boomers: Medicare info with proposed changes

I'm less than two years from being required to switch my healthcare to Medicare.  I have only a basic knowledge of how it works.  Here's a link from the Detroit Free Press to a package of stories about the federal program including proposed changes being discussed in the U.S. Congress.

From The Boomer Blues: You Know You're Getting Old When . . .

If you're an older baby-boomer, then this post from Boomer Blues is funny.  I'm not quite there yet, but getting closer.  One of them--You know you're getting old when:

• You got cable for the weather channel. Old Folks MTV!