The Senior Manifesto: Suggestions For The Coming Days By Jane Seskin

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The Senior Manifesto: Suggestions for the Coming Days
By Jane Seskin

1. Begin with a morning Affirmation: “I will not take my life for granted.”
2. Pay compliments. They’re free and the dividends are worth it.
3. Give yourself permission to say: “I don’t know.”
4. The only person you need approval from – is yourself!
5. Celebrate your mentors.
6. Practice sitting quietly with yourself: 5 minutes, 15, 30.
7. Don’t override fatigue. If you’re tired, take a pause.
8. Blow thoughts of perfection out of your mind and into space.
9. Use sanitizer wipes on doorknobs.
10. List your meds. Carry the list with you.
11. Stand up to rude behavior, to disrespect.
12. Stop hiding in the weeds when you belong with the flowers.
13. Try side-sleeping.
14. You’re allowed to change your mind.
15. Soak your feet in Epsom salts.
16. Store/hide cash in small bills.
17. Sometimes… you just have to wait.
18. Have the conversation you’ve been avoiding.
19. Work a jigsaw puzzle.
20. Choose underwear that applauds your body.
21. Ask for hotel upgrades (no charge).
22. Know what to do in a fire.
23. Stay alert to over-sharing. Hold tight to boundaries.
24. No one has it all together, all the time.
25. One foot in front of the other. Keep moving.
26. Regularly make eye contact. Hold.
27. Don’t lose yourself in busyness.
28. Conversation not confrontation. Assertion not aggression.
29. There’s no deadline on grief.
30. Embrace the people and behaviors that add laughter to your life.
31. We choose what we put in our minds. Choose good things.

Jane Seskin is a social worker and the author of 13 books. Her most recent is the poetry collection, Older Wiser Shorter: The Truth and Humor of Life After 65, available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Bookshop. Her poems and essays have appeared in more than 40 publications (Cosmopolitan, Woman’s Day, Persimmon Tree, Next Avenue, NYT). She’s contributed to the Chicken Soup for the Soul Anthology series. Jane has been a writer-in-residence at the Vermont Studio Center and has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Follow her work on Instagram and Facebook, and find out more at her website, janeseskin.com.