Goodbye, Size 4

We've had a good run. G'bye!

Today I'm taking a bag of clothes to the thrift store.   After six months of trying to maintain a girlish figure, I'm giving up.

"Goodbye, Size 4!"

But I've Always Been Small! 

I'm short--just under five feet tall (apx 152 cm).  I was raised by a single mother, and I was the oldest of her three girls.

In the 1970s, my sisters and I shopped at the 5-7-9 store, and we wore small sizes.  Our mother is also small.

I defined my femininity by being petite. I haven't been much for jewelry or make up or manicures. But I was big on weighing as little as possible.

After having children and moving into midlife, I've seen my ideal weight creep up from 102 to 107 to 112.

From what I've read, people don't need to gain weight when they hit midlife. They can exercise, eat right and do a little strength training (weight lifting).

Essays after Eighty: Book Review

Published 2 December 2014.

Poet Donald Hall somehow manages to write in a way that is both ornery and lyric.

For decades, Hall published acclaimed poetry.  He even served for a year as the Poet Laureate. Then as he grew older, he found that poetry "abandoned" him.

Since writing is his way of being in the world, Hall began writing essays and publishing them in a variety of venues: The American Scholar, Slice, Playboy, New Letters, and the New Yorker.

I found it delightful to imagine sitting with him in his farm house in New Hampshire.

Hall describes the life of a poet, the women he's loved, his enjoyment of food and smoking, his age-related challenges, and the nature that surrounds him.

And while I would never ask him about his wild, scraggly beard, he does offer a compelling narrative about this beard and two previous ones.

I invite you to "sit" with Hall by reading his essays. Here are the titles of the essays collected here and a couple of quotes from each:

Books on the Dying Process

Everybody dies.

But not everyone thinks about dying.

These books provide an overview of the dying process and its many aspects:

• emotional
• social
• legal 
• spiritual  
• physical 

While I am not planning on dying anytime soon, I would like a preview.

It's my habit to research elements of my various life stages as I move through them.

Morning Star vs Evening Star

Photo by kariobinja.

I realize that only a small set of people enjoy poetry (if you discount song lyrics).

And an even smaller set of people enjoy poetry about aging.

Nevertheless, as a retired English teacher now in midlife, I find myself thrilled when I find a poem that explores age-related themes.

I recently learned that Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1887) wrote a fragment of a dramatic poem, featuring artist / inventor Michael Angelo.

Longfellow's unfinished manuscript was found in his desk after his death at age 75.

Michael Angelo, contains themes about aging, memory, legacy, and time--which all interest me a great deal now that I've hit midlife.

Here are a few lines from the section entitled "The Last Judgment":