Aging is a daily habit

I used to think that I knew everything about aging, so I started this blog. My plan was to encourage my friends, family and any others interested in this life we share to open up about our encounters with aging. It appears that most want to just read, and that is fine with me, but it is hard to interact with you when I am the only one speaking. However, I do enjoy the personal emails that I receive from you and try to honor your anonymity.

I have found that aging is a daily habit of mine. I think about it almost all the time. This is not necessarily a bad thing or an obsession. I just think about it. I wonder why I do not want to accept it as a part of my life, even though it is something we do every day. Some days, I think that I just live in denial and expect that I will be happy, healthy, wealthy, and wise until the end of time. But then there are days when I know better.

I know this probably sounds crazy, but as you know, I am a school bus driver and am inundated with youth. I adore my little elementary school students because they are in total awe of life. I love their awe and wish that I could be just like them. They are learning to read and their worlds are taking on new shapes for them. Their social skills keep me laughing as I watch them change boyfriends and girlfriends almost daily. At the same time, I am amazed at the ones who realize that I...the bus driver..am a real human and do a real job and they actually take the time to look me in the eye and thank me when I deliver them to their destinations. There isn't a day that goes by that I do not learn something from them.

Then there are the high school teenagers. I shudder to think that I was ever that worldly and naive all at the same time. Then I realize that maybe I was and maybe I still am. I have learned a few things along the way, but my initial reaction, my gut instinct to life and its offerings is still pretty much the same. I try to treat life with a great deal of patience and accept people for what I think they are. I also try to remember that The Golden Rule rules the heart and mind of most of us.