socially speaking...

Any literature professing to give you scientifically verified factors associated with a longer, healthier life, will include at the top of the list the directive to socialize. I've often wondered what this entails. Does it count if you chat up your grocery clerk? Or if you make gurgling noises to a newborn? Is it within the realm of socializing to Zoom, to correspond, to talk on the phone? How about if you sit in the same room with someone but say nothing (ha! a familiar situation)? When you're young, it's quite clear that to socialize means to engage with others, not over work, not over mundane chores, but in presumably a pleasurable way - to have fun, to exchange ideas, to share. When you're older this becomes more muddled. To socialize may well be simply to not isolate.

No matter how you slice it, I communicate. I talk. I listen. I do not isolate. But by those youthful definitions, I do not frequently socialize. For the fun of it. For the laughter, for the mere pleasure of letting go. I don't have time! If anything, I lack hours where I can isolate. Quiet time. Stay with my own thoughts time. 

But not too long ago, I connected with two friends of yore and we set up, quite unintentionally actually, a rotating breakfast. We take turns hosting. And the breakfast always runs into the lunch hour, because early morning hours don't give us enough time to talk about our days and our plans for the future. Yeah, you young people, we older ones do make plans for the future -- perhaps even more than you do. I suppose this is because we can assume that someday we may not have the presence of mind to make those plans. May as well address future needs and wants now. Interspersed with just pure enjoyment. Over good food.

This breakfast was on my calendar for this morning and so I was up very early, so that I could tick off farmette chores in good time.

(With a quick coffee boost before I set out downtown)

 

 

It was wonderful of course. We've known each other a long time and the comfort level is very high. 

 

 

 

And the food was really good -- a peach smelt sourdough cake (or was it bread or pancake?), fruits, cheeses, chocolate.

 

 

 

Both women are older than me and so I learn from them. I need those lessons! My aging mom wasn't a happy person. Even contentedness eluded her, and so I look elsewhere for role models in the art of achieving happiness.

But by noon, we all had to disperse We all have full calendars. Me, I have the young family coming over for a visit.

And my evening? Definitely quiet time. In the kitchen, cooking up a pot of chili. And then on the couch. With Ed. Well, and the cats. Does that count, by the way? To socialize with cats?

with love...