Self-Empowered Aging - LIfe Experience is Our Superpower

Forty years ago today, on a beautiful spring day in Pullman, WA, the tulips were out in reds, pinks and yellows and the lilac bushes were brilliant shades of purple.  I was outside talking to a neighbor and looking west.  It looked like a big storm coming our way.  Turns out, it was volcanic ash just spewed from Mt. St. Helen.  By 2 pm, it was pitch black dark.  The streetlights came on and it was raining ash.  It was very scary because we didn’t know if the ash was dangerous to our lungs (yes) and to our car engines (yes).  We had no idea how long it would last. 

By the next day, the sun came out in a hazy yellow gray.  The landscape held no color – only gray.  The good news is once we got through the next few weeks, the ash settled down and the rain washed away the gray.  We got to see some color in our lives again.    

I tell this story for two reasons – (1) just like today, we don’t know how things will turn out until we are through it and (2) having lived through this experience as well as super high interest rates in the 80’s, 9/11, the banking debacle in 2008 and more, gives us a perspective of life over time.  Things change and it gets better.

I am 40 years older than I was in 1980.  Thankfully, I’m still alive to experience this amazing process of becoming fully myself. Having some perspective with the benefit of life experience helps me stay grounded and calm because I know things will get better.  As someone who has been aging all her life, I know the value of the aging process and the gifts it brings.  Celebrate your life no matter what your age!  Life experience really is our superpower.