Page 29 - Seniorstoday July 2022 Issue
P. 29
First Person
Seniors on the See-saw
Stepping into your senior years, and getting a sense of what this new
chapter has in store for us, is a time full of contrasts and contradictions,
writes Gouri Dange
We’ve often experienced, as we age, how grey, even internally, and not be all black or
two completely opposing thoughts or white!
emotions or behaviours can come into What are these contrasting experiences
play right at the same moment. Leaving that we contend with every day, as Seniors?
us feeling a tad confused, even sheepish 1. Being Highly Visible VS Highly Invisible
at times. And if someone stands over your at the same time. For instance, you may
head asking you to stop vacillating (or encounter someone turning to you for
oscillating like a table fan), perhaps we affection or advise, and in this way
can say this to them and ourselves: ‘I have acknowledging that you have been around
lived a long life with many experiences, a while and may have a good supply of
and yet many things are completely new both. On that very same day, you may feel
to me in this fast-moving world. So I give quite invisible, as the world rushes past
myself the space and permission to have you or looks through you or forgets to
conflicting feelings and reactions. I remain attend to your query or request.
in learning-mode.’ It is as simple as that! 2. Inhibition VS Spontaneity. Crossing
Grant yourself that visa, the licence, to go the age of 60 at times makes you self-
SENIORS TODAY | ISSUE #37 | JULY 2022 29
