F**k Medicare – or Jean's Blog
F**K Medicare Mentality!
It Was An Owl is a blog for boomers in the last phase of their lives. The last phase, however, is the most important. It can last a long time with the right attitude.
Recently I called almost ten doctors in Southern Oregon; ten supposedly good doctors, not the on-line certificate type. Their offices told me that they didn’t accept Medicare. What they were really saying is that I was probably going to need lots of medical attention because I was getting older and that would entail lots of paperwork, and they were sick of paperwork; thus, only under 60 need apply. What they didn’t ask or know about me is that I would probably outlive them. I have aches and pains, but I take care of myself and I, unlike them (I am guessing), have spent the last two-plus years acknowledging my mortality and creating a conscious path of letting go. As a result, my spirit is lighter, my health is fabulous and my attitude feistier than ever. F**K medicare mentality.
There are, in my opinion, two significant and transformative stages in life: our late teens, early twenties, and late fifties early sixties. Both periods though years apart hold similar yearnings and fears. In our late teens and early twenties, we wonder what we will do with our lives. We wonder how we will make a living. There are so many options they sometimes overwhelm us. Our parents protected us and fed us and gave us a home, and we longed for the day when we could drive or be of drinking age. Those were the freedom markers, the signs of our burgeoning adulthood. Once in, however, there was no turning back. Our mistakes, successes, and failures are who we are and what we will become. If our lives are to be successful, we are responsible not our parents, not our employer, not our friends.
In our late fifties and early sixties, we are again transitioning. We raised our families, and our jobs no longer hold the same allure. We wonder what we will do with rest of our lives as we let go of careers and our youthful bodies. We look inward. We ask ourselves if our lives were meaningful. We wonder if there is anything we could have changed. Like our late teens and early twenties, we flounder a bit and are temporarily aimless.
And somewhere between our late teens and early sixties lie the answers. Did we pay attention to what had heart and meaning for us? Did we grab hold of whatever opportunity came our way regardless of whether it was right for us? Did our fears hold us back in our teens and are they still in our sixties?
And if we are aimless, a bit frightened as we get closer to the horizon, angry that we are no longer the sought after demographic, we can succumb to depression, to our aches and pains or we can change the world, the way we did the 1960’s.
Somewhere in the decades of living our life, a spiritual or magical, tragic or wondrous thing happened that changed our trajectory and awakened our hearts. Did we listen, did we act, or did we ignore the call?
If we did or didn’t act then, now is the time for new miracles and new action. Now is the time to pay attention to those yearnings. An Owl chose me in Westwood, California. She sent me on a thirty-year journey through my fear and anger. Initially, I never spoke of the impact of her constant presence. My east coast upbringing only allowed for spiritual mysteries within the confines of a church, and I imagined that no one would believe the experiences I had. The result of the Owl choosing me is the realization that all my life experiences have meaning and purpose. The wisdom I have accrued must be paid out in service to the late teen and early twenty-year-olds; to the sixty and seventy and beyond year olds who have succumbed to establishment thinking about aging; and to those like me who need support for growing older wisely.
I am interested in what changes people’s lives. Where they got stuck and how they got unstuck. The blog is about life transitions. I am 68, yet my aimlessness may resonate with twenty-eight-year-olds. My forty years more of life’s shit storms and heavenly gifts, however, can bring context, humor, and hope to those younger or those who are stuck. The blog is for all people who are in transition but especially for those of us entering the wisdom years.
We share our life experiences, our spiritual moments. We don’t fix any one or counsel. We tell our story in a meaningful way. We are here for the evolution of our souls. We are here to assist others in the evolution of their souls. We are in partnership with the earth and the universe in doing so.