I always believed, when I was a teenager that anyone aged over 50 was “ancient!” Now that I have passed that flagship age plus another eventful ten years. I have discovered it was another idea of mine that was wrong. Completely wrong.
In the past ten years life really kicked off. I gained confidence, changed job direction again, changed volunteer direction again, been fitter and healthier than I have ever been (touch wood) and found a way to use my passion (dogs) to help others whenever I am asked to help.
So at what age did you discover your confidence and start to switch things around?
I was clearing around Mum’s grave yesterday evening. I don’t tend to stand and pray but yesterday I felt compelled to say ‘thank you.’ I had three decisions to make in the past few weeks and was, as usual, dithering.
In the end I made the decisions in a hurry and two have worked out for the best, but it was due to a conversation I had with her in the previous week. I know it sounds as though I have lost the plot, visiting a grave and having a one sided conversation doesn’t sound like a sane choice, but…
It worked for me.
So to make a long story short, I was thanking her yesterday when it dawned on me that those are two words that are vanishing from our lives.
We never think of the trouble people go to on our behalf and say “thank you” to them.
My husband made a comment a while back, that he doesn’t like opening doors for younger women. The reason being they either think he is up to some evil trick, or they think it is demeaning to them, inferring they need a door to be opened. His question of – “Haven’t we gone too far?” – got me wondering again,
In the past I volunteered with delight for various groups that were looking for help but today if you volunteer you are required to go through a garda vetting (which is only right) but also you have to do a number of courses to allow you to volunteer. So here I am looking at unemployment once again and being left with a choice: I can retrain at 54 or volunteer.
The question is which role am I more capable of filling? I know that the second choice is probably the way to go but … with a string of courses already to my name I am now discovering that some wise man or woman has moved the goal posts and I will have to redo most of the courses, ( possibly trek over and back to England if I wish to volunteer with Ellie my collie cross ) if I wish to return to the role of volunteer.
Bewildering isn’t it?
My question for today is,
Do you think that helping others has become too complicated?
decidinglybob 