Age · Friends · My Thoughts

Grumpy or Serene: It’s My Choice! Another Poem!

Larada Horner-Miller
Maybe grumpy! For sure serne!
Maybe grumpy!
For sure serene!

Grumpy or serene: it’s your choice! As I’ve aged (I’m 70 now; will be 71 in June), I see there’s two types of older people: grumpy or serene and the choice is yours. And I can guarantee you, I don’t want to be seen as grumpy!

I think of the movie, “Grumpy Old Men” starring Walter Matthau, Jack Lemmon and Ann Margaret. And I laugh! Yet those two old men personify “grumpy” to me.

This last week, I had a funeral to go to and saw how someone’s sense-of-humor cracked me up from the grave! Yes, I heard “Prop me up beside the jukebox if I die” at my friend’s graveside service. His personality lived as we laughed and cried. (See my post from last week.)

Then I had another interaction with a friend a year older than me, filled with anger at me for somethings I did years ago. It broke my heart as I read his list of resentments. Right then, I knew and see the contrast—grumpy not serene!

So, I turned to poetry as usual and this poem came up! Let me know what you think!

Grumpy or Serene? It’s My Choice!

I’m seventy, turning seventy-one.

            In younger people’s eyes, that’s old.

I used to think seventy old.

But I look at myself in the mirror,

            I take an emotional temperature,

                        And I’m sixteen

In a seventy-year-old body

That can’t go, go, go,

Like before.

I know that most of my life is behind me.

I packed a lot of living in my seventy years.

Yet I anticipate what’s coming ahead

With joy and expectation!

What will seventy-five be like?

            Eighty?

                        Eighty-five?

                                    Ninety?

I have a choice as I face my elder years:

            Grumpy or serene!

I choose serene!

Some of my friends,

My schoolmates,

Same age or a year older or two,

Have chosen grumpy.

I can’t do it!

I can’t go there!

Yes, life has handed me

Disappointments

Heartache

Despair

But I funneled those negative feelings into

Recovery

            Life

            Love

            People

Today I feed my serenity with

            Writing

            Time with Lin

                        In the hot tub

                        Watching movies

                        Traveling

                        Dancing when we can

            Recovery meetings

            Meditation

            Quiet times with my God

            Time with my brother

                        Watching sports

                        Trips to our ranch

                                    Searching for wildlife

                                    Reminiscing about our childhoods

I want my last days here

            To be filled with

                        Laughter

                        Love

                        Travel

                        Dancing

                        Friends

                        Family

I count on more to come,

            More of the good stuff,

Yes, I know weaved into it will be

            Sadness

            Loss

            Trials

But I vow to you now,

Grumpy or serene won’t be a choice,

Because I choose serene!

In ending,

here’s some reading material to keep my older readers refreshed and serene and my younger reader prepared for your futures:

Here are several May Sarton books I haven’t read but are on my list:

Hair on Fire won 1st place in the March Nonfiction book cover contest on AllAuthors.com - laughter

Enjoy my interview on the podcast, The Writing Table

Hair on Fire: A Heartwarming & Humorous Christmas Memoir

~ Hair on Fire: A Heartwarming & Humorous Christmas Memoir available in audiobook format at the following places:

~SHOP TODAY FOR YOUR AUTOGRAPHED COPY! Shop at my Etsy Shop or my Shopify Store

Published by Larada Horner-Miller

Larada Horner-Miller is a poet, essayist and accomplished multi-genre author who holds a bachelor’s degree in English, with a minor in Spanish and a master of education degree in Integrating Technology into the Classroom. She is the accomplished author of eight award-winning biographies, historical fiction, memoir, and poetry works and three audiobook’s plus three self-published cookbooks. Her most recent book, Was It a Dream?: Navigating Life’s Journey Through Poetry is a finalist in the Global Book Awards. As is our book released last year, Hair on Fire: A Heartwarming & Humorous Christmas Memoir. Horner-Miller has also been a past national presenter at the Women Writing the West Conference and is currently the creator of Memoir Workshops for others who want to share their family’s legacies through words. Larada and her husband, Lin, enjoy being nestled in the mountains above Albuquerque, New Mexico, near the village of Tijeras. When not writing books, this passionate, energetic, and enthusiastic woman loves to spend time kicking up her heels at square dancing gatherings, traveling, knitting, and reading. As co-manager of her family’s southeastern Colorado ranch, she enjoys spending time exploring her family’s historic ranch and reminiscing with her brother and his children about their mom, dad, and granddad.

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