Grandma Moses and Me

"I look back on my life like a good day's work; it was done and I am satisfied with it." 
Anna Mary Robertson Moses.

Grandma Moses was born in 1860; she began oil painting in the 1930s when arthritis in her hands made the hobby of embroidery difficult or maybe impossible. Notice I said "began"! If you will do the math, you will see that in 1930, she was 70 years old. What a time in life to begin a new career. And what a career it was!
She is remembered today as an important American folk artist. If you Google her name, I'm sure you will recognize her work.

Grandma Moses' story encourages me because it is easy for me to regret what I have failed to do up until now. But you know, the days, months, and years will pass whether I make use of them or not. Grandma Moses could have said, "I've always wanted to paint. Ho hum, I wish I had started years ago. My, my, now I'm too old." Somehow I doubt Grandma Moses ever really "got old," though she lived to the age of 101.

That's how I want to be. Obviously I didn't choose the year I was born, and I'm not ashamed of the number of birthdays I have had, but I don't want to be "old" in thinking and attitude! And so I am doing a few things to help ward off "oldness." I try to stay in shape physically by walking for exercise, but I need to add some resistance training to this. You know, the whole fragile bone thing... Also, I'm keeping my brain active with reading, teaching, and piano practice, and I have added lumosity.com games to my regular routine.

And then there are some things I need to do MUCH better in. One of them is my walk with the Lord. Bible reading and prayer are so important, but often they don't seem urgent to me and tend to get shuffled around. And so this needs to go to the top of the list.

Then there is that nagging wish to write. I'm not sure why or why I can't get away from it or why I feel such reluctance to just DO it. Anyway, in this area, my goal is to write 50 posts in 2013 whether anyone reads them or not. (I would have said 52 for 52 weeks but...you guessed it, I'm already 2 weeks behind!)

If I were to die today, I don't think I could say, "I look back on my life like a good day's work; it was done and I am satisfied with it." But I would like to.