by DeAnna Quietwater Noriega
As a child, I had a brave mother. She never tried to prevent me from climbing trees, running, jumping, or participating in the activities typical of childhood. As a result, I developed excellent echolocation, balance, and coordination. These assets made it easier for me to orient, mental map and adjust to changes beneath my feet. I seldom fell, walked into things or got lost as I moved around my public school, neighborhood and learned new places quickly.
Now that I have become a golden girl of 75 years, I am having to adapt to decreased stamina, a slight hearing loss that makes my once excellent echolocation skill less reliable. The onset of vertigo four years ago means I have to judge how much I can get done in a day and when I need to slow down and prioritize my time better. Additional health concerns like arthritic knees, and a loss of three inches in height, make doing ordinary tasks more difficult.
If I push myself beyond these new limitations, I am likely to become too distracted by maintaining my balance to trust my orientation. I veer, stumble, and worst of all, get lost. My memory can fail me if I don’t use my skill with computer command structures or forget that a certain street crossing is complicated by oddities in street or curb cut locations. I have to be sure I have earbuds or headsets charged that allow me to hear traffic to use GPS apps.
As a wife, guide dog user, mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, writer, and Zoom host for ACB, I have to be careful to blend tasks that are necessary, but leave enough time to do things that help me stay healthy in mind, body and spirit. To cope with the changes brought on by aging, I slow down as the day takes a toll on my energy. Keeping a calendar of medical appointments and personal care activities is useful for better time management.
Adjusting to my new reality can pose challenges, but I have had a lifetime to develop coping techniques that make my life the best it can be. Working smarter, not harder is still a tool that I use to figure out solutions to conquer new stumbling blocks. It isn’t what we lack in life, but what we do with the things we have that determines the quality of our lives.