Recently I learned to appreciate the value that can come to those who attend a memorial service in a funeral home. My observations from the previous entry continue here. • Because those in attendance knew each other—and the person who died—this event felt like a final step in knowing more fully who she really was. A satisfying experience to complete all the years of positive andMORE...
Recently I attended a memorial service that took place in a funeral home. Because this was something I’ve not experienced in decades, I was especially interested in seeing how this kind of service might compare with a memorial service in a church. I was favorably impressed at how spiritual matters maintained their strengths in the funeral home setting. In this and the following entry, IMORE...
It’s been six months. If you started reading these entries from their start, you and I have shared over one hundred ideas that have appeared at Fullofyears.org since the end of August, 2017. This feels like a helpful time to review my original thoughts about writing blogs for older adults whose spirituality was a bit different than the usual. What I had in mind back then was something a littleMORE...
At this stage in life, we are often reminded to be “resilient”. This trait is supposed evidence of other desirable personality characteristics that we can carry throughout our lives—determination, flexibility, buoyancy, even lightheartedness. This thought is well-intentioned: What lasting good comes from giving up on life goals, other people, hope or your most basic qualities? Staying strong, inMORE...
In my never-ending quest to put the experiences of older adults into new words, I am today challenging all readers to help invent some portmanteaus especially suited for this stage in life. This linguistic phenomenon occurs when two or more phonemes are combined to create a new word, sometimes with elements of a pun. So Tanzania came from smushing together parts of the names of its twoMORE...
We senior citizens are besieged with too many well-meaning health warnings and directives! From TV commercials and pop-up ads for new pharmacological wonders to the omnipresent reminders from our friends at AARP, there’s more than enough information about how we can avoid large problems and take care of what ails us. This deluge of information can help and harm me. On the one hand, I soak upMORE...
I’ve watched this feeling grow in some older adults who I have known well: They finally get tired of the work of staying alive, and just give up. What I have also seen: the difficulty of bringing up this matter with those around them. How do any of us tell those who love us that we’re ready to die? What words do we use? What will our loved ones be ready to hear? How do we broach the subjectMORE...
I’ve always wondered how it felt to be Don Quixote. He was an elderly fellow—50-ish, considered old in his time—when his self-appointed adventures began. Deemed insane, foolish or both, this self-designated knight took on a series of causes that, in his mind, were necessary for the well-being of others. His self-image can serve as a warning for any of us who imagine the importance of our lives inMORE...
When my spouse and I were courting, and had come to the point of being pretty sure we wanted to spend our lives together, we would sometimes imagine what it would be like to be in love at some advanced age in our future. Rocking chairs on the porch was always our go-to image, spring or summer the imagined season and comforting coziness the ambience with which we would enjoy those loving timesMORE...
In recent weeks, news reports have noted the establishment of a well-regarded function of Great Britain’s governmental bureaucracy: The Ministry of Loneliness. The announcement was notable for several reasons: • The need for this work has been known for years—loneliness is a health matter that correlates with diminished physical and mental health that has spread across Britain’s relationalMORE...
BOB SITZE has filled the many years of his lifework in diverse settings around the United States. His calling has included careers as a teacher/principal, church musician, writer/author, denominational executive staff member and meat worker. Bob lives in Wheaton, IL.