Welcome to the Land of Elders....

...Where the current residents will greet you, the Newly Old,
with baffled faces that match your own:
"How did we get here?"

Walk carefully on the ground of Uncertainty
so as not to fall into the holes of illness and worse
you've seen others tragically topple into.

You may congratulate yourself from time to time
for not disappearing into the abysses, but we
all know what goeth after pride.

Maybe you will feel twinges of smug self-satisfaction
as you note all the good choices you have made,
but let's don't go there.

Welcome to the Landscape of Corny Jokes
about memory loss, aching joints, fragile bones,
and beer-bellied husbands in plaid polyester recliners.

Welcome to the new geography of
Things You Will Probably Never Do,
billboards popping up everywhere:

Ride a motorcycle through Tuscany
Start a new career
Take up pole dancing
Give birth to a baby
Win the Pulitzer 
Fall in love with Perfect Soulmate

Some of these things you will never do,
you don't even want to do anymore.
Some you'll just have to accept and call it spiritual growth.
(Squatting comes to mind.)

In various waiting rooms, you will thumb through
glossy fashion and advice magazines,
where fewer and fewer topics seem applicable:

Ads for glamorous shoes, dating, fashion, and sex advice,
long eyelashes and dewy skin, words of wisdom
about how to deal with intrusive mother-in-laws.

(Wait--you ARE a mother-in-law!
Are those your children writing in?)

Mostly, you will find outdated magazines
on golf, finance and arthritis,
but you pick up Better Homes & Gardens
looking for recipes, even though you rarely cook.

After you have arrived here in the Land of Elders,
After you have taken stock and unpacked,
After you have made peace with the place--
you will find ways to keep your heart beating,
new music, new moves.

Get used to your new moniker.
Everyone under the age of 47 (occasional visitors here)
will call you "Sweetie" or "Sweetheart."

Do not mistake this for affection.
They do this because all of us who live here
look alike to them.
Put us all together in one room and they see a bunch of cupcakes
with various frostings and sprinkles.

In spite of aches in places you never knew you had before,
you will find new enthusiasms emerging,
along with a wider perspective than you had
when you lived in that other country,

Remember how dedicated you once were to improving yourself
by reading self-help books?
The mantra here is, Accept yourself, you're fine. 

Whatever happens, do not allow yourself to feel like a has-been
no matter what the commercials say about "old lady drivers"
and clueless "grannies."

Avoid the habit of feeling invisible--
just know that the flaw is in the youth-besotted eyes of the beholders,
bless their hearts.

Never call yourself "old,"
Or you will have drunk the Kool-Aid of the culture.

Others may call us old, but in the Land of Elders, we like better
words like seasoned, classy, wise, funny, 
mature, sensual, authentic, curious, adventurous.

If  you refuse to act old in this place,
you will wake up many mornings so excited that you can't wait to start
doing whatever ignites the fire that's in you