The following guest post from friend Paulette Blais. Her most recent career endeavour as a certified life, work, and retirement coach has helped many to articulate and realize their dreams and aspirations. Paulette is a role model who can step out of her comfort zone, always knowing her priorities. I hope you enjoy this blog post which she shared on her web site. It certainly resonated with me.
I saw my late mom’s swim friend, V., at the pool yesterday. There is something sweet about her calling me “Esther’s daughter”, as nobody else in Toronto would know me that way. V. is 80. She is bent over and uses a walker. Her spine is visibly twisted. She has had at least one hip replaced. She walks to do groceries, swims a couple of times a week and lives in the house where she was born.
Her physical challenges are visible, but I don’t feel sorry for her. I admire her. I admire her strength and her tenacity. She is a little fierce and very independent. She is very much her own woman.
Seeing her did get me thinking, though, about challenges that aren’t visible. What if someone is trying to quit smoking? How about a person going every day to a bad job they can’t quit because they need to pay rent? Think of a parent trying to support an adult child who has an illness or anxiety disorder. We all struggle. In our own ways we are also all strong – just maybe not always as much as we want to be. And yes we also fail and flail, sometimes many times more than we succeed.
Why am I talking about this? Maybe if we keep this in mind we will be kinder and grant grace to others and ourselves. Galen Emmanuel’s most recent blog video Lighten Up has the message: Assume the extreme best of other people. Good advice. You can’t always see what other folks are going through.
Paulette Blais
Certified life, work and retirement coach
Becoming of Age 