Panning for Gold in Our Golden Years: A Journal for Positive Aging

By Judy Sheer Watters

Panning for Gold in Our Golden Years looks at what life can be like in our "golden years" if we approach it with a positive attitude. Let's face it; there is no stopping the aging process. It happens to all of us. But what truly matters is HOW we face our golden years. As we reach those senior years, we have to ask ourselves, have we found the gold? Do we have any control over our destiny? Are we enjoying life in our golden years?

This book will help you to face the days of letting someone else do the driving. You can laugh at the craziness of a misunderstood conversation because your hearing aid batteries are dead. You will learn that with a positive attitude, you can accept the walker or wheelchair and know that you still have something to give as you read to your grandchildren or great grandchildren. You will realize that your common sense has developed into a wisdom that becomes a win-win for all.

In this book you will learn how to recognize all the positives that aging affords us. You will learn how to not just face each season as it comes, but also to see the growth and to experience the learning that comes with it. Reading through my mother's experiences as she faced each new phase will trigger your own memories. Hopefully, you will be able to laugh along with her and realize you are not alone in this endeavor.

When you write your reflections to the prompts provided, this journal will become a treasure of memories for your children and for the generations to come.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Judy Sheer Watters
• Release date: Feb 28, 2019
• ISBN: 9781941516423

Judy Sheer Watters

Judy Sheer Watters, secondary principal of Living Rock Academy, co-leads Hill Country Christian Writers and Hill Country Legacy Writers. She is a freelance writer, editor and co-owner of Franklin Scribes Publishers focused on helping first-time authors to bring their work to publication. Her first book, The Road Home: The Legacy that was, is, and is to Come, tells of her life lessons learned as a child on a small farm in Pennsylvania. She has been published in many publications. Judy's greatest joy is helping others find the life lessons in their lives and to write down those stories for their families and for the generations to come. She and her husband live in Spring Branch, Texas, and are parents of three adult children, one daughter-in-law and two grand-cats.

Book preview

Dedication

To Mom, my mentor in life, not so much in word, but in action as she cared for others and built relationships along life’s way.

Acknowledgments

MY SIBLINGS AND I SAW our parents’ love lived out in action every day. Respect for each other ranked high on their list. Oh, they never said so, but each one gave 100% of their energy to love the other. Mom commented many times, Daddy works so hard at the factory, and he’s on the road so much (ten miles each way). She made sure to have a hot meal ready to greet him when he reached home every day.

When his factory day ended, his work at home began. After dinner, Daddy turned his attention to making repairs on the farm or house. With dishes done, Mom scurried outside to work alongside Daddy whether it was plowing a field or milking the cows.

They planted the garden, weeded, and harvested together. Mom often carried a picnic basket full of delectable homemade offerings to the field where Daddy would be cutting hay. We children trailed behind and spread a blanket for our picnic lunch together.

My parents eked out a living for their children, and in the end, they left a legacy of the can do spirit and the truth that all things are possible with a positive mental attitude.

How to Use This Journal

PANNING FOR GOLD IN Our Golden Years: A Journal for Positive Aging is a work in progress as you choose to enter your golden years in a positive light. You may not have lived through a few of these stages of aging yet. However, read through all the stories. I hope you can laugh at just the right parts and, actually, relate to many situations as you see yourself in this new season. When you have answered the prompts at the end of each chapter, this will become a priceless gift for your children and your generations to come.

Table of Contents

1

Loss:  An Empty Nest

Gain: An Empty Nest?

2

Loss:  Love of Her Life

Gain:  A New Life

3

Loss: Her Homestead

Gain:  A New Home

4

Loss: The Old Plan

Gain: The New Vision

5

Loss: Mobility 

Gain: Other Transportation

6

Loss: Drivers’ License 

Gain: Relief

7

Loss: Ability to Exercise

Gain: Ability to Rationalize Exercise

8

Loss: Hearing

Gain: Comic Relief

9

Loss: Common Sense

Gain: Wisdom

10

Loss: Mental Acuity

Gain: Higher Level Reasoning

11

Loss: Memory

Gain: Greater Memories Recalled

12

Loss: Thoughts of Life

Gain: Thoughts of the Hereafter

13

The Final Chapter on Aging

14

My Get Up and Go Has Got Up and Went, Poem

More Reflections

Introduction

MY HUSBAND AND I LOVE to watch Alaska TV shows about digging and sometimes finding gold. Those people start out with high expectations. They tell the world how much gold they will find this season. You can almost feel the excitement through the TV screen. And, yes, sometimes it makes me want to be right alongside of them. I’m excited and ready to go.

However, there’s a process every gold digger must follow. And it goes like this.

First, they need to find gold-rich land. They search for landowners and convince them that the gold diggers will find a ton of gold and through paying a percentage, they will make the landowner even more money.

Next, they purchase or rent heavy equipment for hundreds of thousands of dollars. More money is poured into transporting the machinery onto their claim. They spend countless hours working to get the machines to operate as quickly and efficiently as possible.

Then the Alaskan weather presents issues that the miners need to overcome. Some seasons, the miners find they have arrived too early; the ground is still frozen and little can be done until it thaws. But once it thaws, they quickly busy themselves digging deep into the soil to reach the pay dirt.

Ultimately, a host of problems occur. Throughout the season, rigs spring transmission leaks: trucks get too close to the edge of the road and a crane has to help pull them back from the precipice. The person loading the pay dirt into the sluice loads it too fast and huge rocks stop up the ripples or tear the belts beyond repair. Progress shuts down until the mechanic can jerry-rig a solution or, worse yet, someone has to make a six-hour drive one way to get a necessary part.

The quest for gold has many ups-and-downs. The men rejoice at the purifying of a hundred ounces and hang their heads in discouragement at a less-than-profitable wash. It seems that just as the