No, really. I AM too old for this.

126: who knows, you may be, too?

Nobody wants to be called old. (I feel really bad for this word old, you know. What did it ever do to deserve so much baggage? But I digress.)

Also, nobody likes being told they are too old to do something. “We’re never too old,” we’re reminded. Often and in flashing neon lights. We in turn pump our fists in the air, and declare, Hell Yeah!

But for a moment here, I’d like to encourage you to sit and think about what you are indeed too old for. And before you curse me out and hit the ‘unsubscribe’, hear me out, or rather check out my list below.

These are some things I am too old for:

• loud bars (can’t believe there was a time...)

• being drawn into other people’s drama

• having to smile at inappropriate jokes (gah, never again)

• ruminating about what someone meant when they said or did something

• spending hours on the phone with a friend about the above, dissecting every word

• gossiping

• an unmade bed

• waiting for people who are perennially late (respect!)

• engaging in useless, inane debates about things I cannot possibly influence (like changing people’s minds about who they voted for¹)

• endlessly complaining about the same things over and over

• twisting myself into a pretzel to gain someone’s love

• expensive jars at the cosmetics counter

• old food in the fridge

• no food in the fridge

• feeling sorry for myself

• waiting for someone to pick me

So, while I absolutely wave the flag of “It’s never too late”, I submit that there are indeed things I’ve certainly become too old for. And isn’t that a beautiful thing?

Let go of what no longer serves. Make space for what does.

What’s on your list?

🏷 Joy and Well-Being

💭 muse

“It is the stories we believe that shape what we become, shape what the world is. In an age when commercial media have become the great conditioning engine of society, selling models of reality because they are profitable and not because they are true, it matters all the more what stories we believe, and what we resist.” — Maria Popova of The Marginalian

🍹 reader shout-out

Here’s an all-out shout-out to one of our new WAGO readers,

Marika Páez Wiesen

who writes the Substack column, Living in In-Between Times. Marika is breaking up with her perfectionist mindset and tendencies that keep her feeling she’s never enough, and sharing all her experiments with us.

🍭 you said

In our last community chat,

Nicole Giordano

had this to say about how she’d spend a day with no obligations. What I love about what she said is the last sentence:

What a joy to think about! I would wake up early, go to may favorite coffee shop, order a flat white, and sit there reading my book for hours. I'd order a tasty lunch, another coffee, and just keep reading. I would stroll home and cook a favorite dinner (I love to cook so this isn't an obligation) and then likely watch a movie. Then more reading before bed. As I write this, I'm realizing how grateful I am because what I just described is something that I do a couple time per month — guilt free.

Made me realize that we already have the ability and capacity to have our “perfect day”. We don’t need some radical change. We just need to make space for it and put it on our calendar!

💬 If you had a whole day...

💬 last word

I’m feeling a bit revolutionary 😉, so here’s one, reggae-style, by an artist I used to listen to a lot in the late 80s, early 90s.

Eddy Grant is a Guyanese-British singer. When this anti-apartheid song was released, it was a huge hit in Europe but was banned in South Africa — though it was widely played there anyway! “Jo'anna" refers to Johannesburg and is symbolic of the apartheid government. The song expressed hope for change in South Africa; apartheid ended in 1991.

May the odds be ever in your favor,
Lou Blaser

1. I realize there are people who are gifted and can do this effectively. Alas, not me.