Managing my lopsided 86th year

I intend my 86th year to be lopsided. I’ve had a demanding first 5 months. I want a calm, creative second half.

SInce my birthday on 24 February, life has been (by my standards) busy. Trip to New Plymouth for fun, two trips to Auckland (for my play in the Dolphin Theatre), Christchurch (a dance weekend), Auckland (for the Podcast Summit) and Timaru (for my play in the Playhouse, by the local theatre group). Each trip has been really really cool and I wouldn’t have missed a minute.

Now I’ve just come home from Timaru, where The Secret Lives of Extremely Old People was completely sold out, once again, like the other two productions. I see a pattern here, don’t you? Maybe a hunger for this unexpected play based on the true stories and actual words of New Zealand nonagenarians.

Thinking ahead: always necessary, never infallible

What’s on your plate for the next few months? I write and draw what’s on my Plate every few months, but my expectations in January were quite wrong. I thought I’d focus completely on my podcast, and my life would feel more under control, more together. Here’s my Plate in January 2025, reflecting my priorities.

Written in the corner: “Wishful thinking: a cluttered time with much travel.”

I did get the 3rd season of my podcast, Learning How To Be Old, finished by the end of March, but I still had just a bit too much on my Plate. “A bit too much” is what I like: but this was a bit too much of a bit too much.

I’m not at all sure what an objective observer would say. But I did find myself feeling anxious. That always happens when I have a series of events ahead. By contrast, one at a time is no problem.

One more interesting project and I’m done

I feel no stress at all about the next project, starting in three days time — because it’s the last in the sequence! (Also because I prepare well and I know my stuff — but that’s always true so feeling stressed never makes sense.) I’m one of three researchers in a fascinating study on sleep and aging. The concern is with messages from media about aging and sleep that combine doomsday with bossiness. Which is really is a no-win message for older people.

Why me, you may well ask? Because it includes a workshop where people over 70 will write a poem about sleep. Hey, that’s going to be fun.

Now to make my 86th year lopsided

What I want next is a calm, quiet time for thinking, reading, writing, drawing and recording. That’s my plan! Here’s the Plate I drew today. It’s a combination of wishful thinking and an actual plan. I want the rest of my 86th year to flow gently

Maybe I’m restoring balance

Instead of calling this a lopsided 86th year perhaps I ought to see it as the perfect balance, a quiet time after a chaotic start. In which case the two halves are not warped, mismatched but complementary, an excellent combination of good stress and good relief.

I do know for sure that in my old age, I can comfortably do less and travel less than before. But I’m working on that. With a clever new trick, I can now pack in a few hours. I just narrow my options. Need one outfit? Choose from only two, not from the whole wardrobe. Gosh that’s good 🙂

Still excited about new projects in my old age

That’s good news, isn’t it? Being excited? I was thrilled to do my new presentation just fine this week in Timaru. Complete with doing tai chi to Helen Reddy’s I am Woman and (sort of) dervish spinning to Willie Nelson’s Still Not Dead. That was so much fun! I’ve adored watching two new productions of my play — and watching the audiences.

Nevertheless, after these three workshops on Words on Sleep, I will have “a cuppa tea and a lie down,” to quote the immortal words of David Lange.

What’s on your plate? Time and Stress management — this is not how I do it, but it’s a bit similar. One day I’ll explain my own way of looking at what’s on my plate. I learned this from distinguished film director Gaylene Preston — since when, no doubt, I’ve distorted her concept into my own version. As is right and proper. It’s hugely helpful to me. Not a to-do list or a vision or goals or whatever. It’s different.