The Senior Center’s website is new-ish. It went up last year and is still a work in progress. It is worth a visit. The address is long but really easy: CharlotteSeniorCenterVT.org. In addition to the seasonal schedule and the monthly calendars, you’ll find our menus for the month, additional nutrition tidbits, occasional photos of activities, some background information on the Center, as well as limited archives of these articles.
Haven’t we all been down this road—more than once? It seems that, for better for worse, a little self-forgiveness in order. Especially so, since we will very possibly fall into this same refrain yet again.
On Oct. 3 at 12:15, there will be an A.E.D. review (automatic external defibrillator); please sign up for that in advance by calling the Center. And that same day, from 2 to 7 p.m., the Senior Center will host a Blood Drive in affiliation with the American Red Cross. To register to donate, please contact RedCrossBlood.org. The Senior Center is famous for its friendly hosts, great snacks and comfortable atmosphere.
“The technologies which have had the most profound effects on human life are usually simple. A good example of…
It was mid March and I woke up to heavy, wet snow. I growled out the window, “Hey, it’s almost spring. Enough!” Then I panicked as I thought, “Is the Charlotte Senior Center going to be open? Is Liesje Smith, the teacher of my movement/dance class, going to make it in the snow?”
“Music comes from an icicle as it melts, to live again as spring water.” ~ Henry Williamson Just today,…
Sound a little familiar? Which type are you? How is it that when we are young we are often compelled to think we have the answers? Yet as we age, many of us realize that we do not—even though we have had several decades of living to discover them. Actually, if we are lucky, we come to love the questions.
Have you noticed that your attitude toward snow changes as the season wears on? At the outset, it’s that wonderful, magical, winter wonderland stuff—and in March, it’s a guest who has stayed too late after the party.
So many words for cold: nippy, frigid, freezing, brutal, brisk, refreshing, crisp, bitter, glacial, biting, piercing, numbing, raw, arctic – and a few others I’ve never heard of, like gelid and brumal. But, living in Vermont, we all know that there is cold – and then there is COLD.
Winter in Vermont: Snowy. Cold. Dark. Umm, how about two out of three? For me, the snow (the more the better) and the cold (okay to -20F) present both a challenge and an adventure.
On Monday December 17th, Chef Roland and Lisa Gaujac provided the Senior Center with a delicious holiday lunch. We…
Okay, so perhaps you think that it’s easy for Hawking to talk about “the joy of discovering”—after all, he was doing ‘important work.’ But that need not be the yardstick. Not long ago, I waited in my car for an extended time for a friend at the bus station. I had the time to observe a spider (with my car window closed) on a web it had spun between the side-view mirror and the body of my car.
Some of my grateful moments are these: Driving by the two teenaged girls jogging down the road with their ponytails swaying in unison. The colony of seagulls widely spaced out on the field, strutting around in different directions and looking as though they forgot why they had come. The daily courtesy of a driver letting you into traffic.
This quote probably describes the state of mind of many of our Senior Center visitors. Being “retired” seems to have the image of bored, older citizens at loose ends with not much to do. On the contrary, our participants have trouble fitting another course or activity into their daily schedules with family and volunteering with many, many organizations. One common refrain is: “I’d love to do that, but I just don’t have the time.” It certainly makes planning programs a challenge!
Ah, yes, those scary words: old age. This quote seems to suggest that it might just be an attitude or a mindset more than anything. So perhaps to “triumph over old age” can also mean to change your mind about categorizing yourself—and others. Whatever the case, the concept of an “unwrinkled heart” is something I just want to savor rather than analyze.
Haven’t we all been a little surprised at the person looking back at us in the mirror? We are a little like an iceberg (but in the warmest sort of way)—there is so much more below the surface.
So, there are wrinkled old wizards in movies, but where are the female versions? They are more likely to be depicted as the w-word—which rhymes with stitch. Female wizards? Or, how about “wise women,” instead? Consider for a moment that we have all possibly met wise women in real life. Really? Really.
Gandalf, Dumbledore, Obi-Wan Kenobi—all old men with wrinkles—and magical powers. So, the magic makes the wrinkles acceptable? Interesting that the magic does not make them go away. Hmm. Perhaps they are (rightly) seen as a badge of honor.
Julia Child wrote her last cookbook at 87 years old. Frank Wright worked until he was 91. Robert Marchand set a new world record for his age group in bicycling nearly 17 miles in one hour when he was 102 years old. I am unsure if the above leaves me encouraged or discouraged.
“Summer afternoon—summer afternoon; to me those have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language.” – Henry James.