There’s an email going round which is so appropriate for us mature* types that I’m repeating some of the key sentiments below. Even if you saw it, they are worth the reminder.

*I’m still struggling to find a definition for us, the baby boomers, the golden agers, the ones who have been young for a very long time: no longer young, not yet old . . . I still can’t pin the perfect word down. However I looked up mature in my thesaurus. Check these definitions out:

Fully developed powers of mind and body

Complete in natural development

Ripe

Perfect (as in a plan maturing)

Become due for payment

Older than most (as in mature student)

Grown up

Fully fledged, developed, experienced, knowledgeable, sophisticated. (Don’t know about you, but I like that one)

Mellow, age, season, ripen, bring to maturity

Ripeness, readiness, fullness.

So I guess mature is the word, wide-ranging though it might be. I’m rather taken with mellow, mind. And seasoned.

Anyway, here are the sentiments on that email. Take notes, this is important stuff.

DO NOT FEAR. Fear is so desperately crippling, and the media of the world seem determined to whip us into a permanent state of it. Much of what you fear will never happen, not to you personally. Most of the stuff that does happen is unexpected anyway. When and if it does, deal with it. Fear offers us nothing.

DO NOT REGRET. The past is unchanging. Nothing you can do can change what happened. Take the lesson from it, yes: those who ignore history are fated to repeat it. But do not regret.  Nothing that happened to you, if you survived it, can break you, unless you let it.

VISIT PLACES YOU WANT TO VISIT.  What’s holding you back? Time? Money? Fear? If you really, really want to visit a place, carpe diem, seize the day. Visit it.

EAT WHAT YOU WANT. You may need to eat it in smaller quantities, sure. But life is short. You don’t really want to cram your face with garbage, that’s not what this message is about. It is about treating yourself. I adore cheese, but my favourite cheese, now that I am mature, triggers mood-swings during the day and nightmares if I eat it at night.  I gave it up.  Then I started again – smaller quantities. Because I am experienced, knowledgeable, seasoned and I want to . . .

SEIZE EVERY CHANCE TO SEE YOUR FRIENDS. No-brainer. We seasoned mature mellow people can let life distract us, put things off to tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow. If the chance comes up to see a favourite person, no, it is not too far. It is not too much trouble. The chance may not come up tomorrow. Do it.

SMILE AND LAUGH. Have you smiled today? Laughed? Or are you reading this and that’s all well and good but life isn’t always funny.  No, it isn’t. But a genuine laugh is like a shot of vitamins, the effect is extraordinary. Smile, now, at the screen. Smile at people. I have before now gone hunting through youtube clips to banish the blues. Ellen DeGeneres is usually good, especially some of her stand-up routines. Find someone who cheers you up, and get back into the habit of smiling. The laughter will follow. It feels wonderful.

LIFE ENDS WHEN YOU STOP DREAMING

HOPE ENDS WHEN YOU STOP BELIEVING

LOVE ENDS WHEN YOU STOP CARING

FRIENDSHIP ENDS WHEN YOU STOP SHARING