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Too Old for This Sh*t: How to Take Your Life Back from an Ageist Society

Wednesday was a wonderful day. Here’s why

By 7 am this past Wednesday, Mika (above) and I were well on our way to the central Oregon Coastline. We had heavy fog in the Willamette Valley, down to a quarter-mile of visibility.

Mika had her face into the wind in the shotgun seat. The cold air flapped her jaws back, she bit at the wind, her tail wagging happily as I grasped the handle on the top of her bright orange Ruff Wear harness.

The harness she loves to get covered in dead gull on the beach. There’s that.

It’s early November in the PNW. That means that a lot of intensely bright bluish-red maples are still stubbornly holding on to their leaves. Most of the rest of the leaves have long given up their perches, many of them becoming a palette for the light rains.

By the time I passed the sorta-midway point where the cell phone coverage drops because of a valley, the fog had largely burned off. The closer you get to the Coast, the weather shifts. Wednesday it was sunny, brilliantly blue and no breezes.

Mika and I parked, hiked the sand dune to the top where I released her. Then I watched her rip at full speed, hurling herself down the steep slope, a ten-month-old puppy with the entire beach to herself, her nose and her pent-up energy.

The tide was on its way out. It had brought in the usual suspects: dead gulls (MIKA NO NO NO), scattered crab shells, the detritus of people who think that the ocean is one big handy garbage dump.

Mika did her own dumps. I picked up after her and left the bright blue bags for me to collect after our two-mile walk north.

Tiny shorebirds tippy-tapped on the edge of the tide, becoming a wave of feet and feathers as each splash uncovered their food. Mika tore after them, then chased the shadows of a flock of pelicans.

Once she was running so fast that she failed to realize that she had gone from sand to tidal pool. I was watching from a distance when she disappeared, then her head comically came back up. While I was momentarily terrified, she was nonplussed.

She located the sand, leapt out, shook off and took off again.

So what, I’m wet.

Mika finds a stick.

As we walked north, the cold winds began to subside. Behind me the sun rose and warmed the air to the point where my big coat was too much.

Every so often Mika would come over for a drink of fresh water. Her muzzle was covered in sand.

So what, I’m sandy.

LOOK A CRAB LOOK A CLAM LOOK DOGGIE POO LOOK MOM LOOK MOM LOOK MOM!!!!

Above, a raptor hovered. I stayed close to Mika. She’s sixty pounds but I have great regard for Nature’s power and strength.

To our right, the dunes rose precipitously. Anchored by dune grasses, the dense cover is home to rodents. Mika once flushed a tiny mouse that I had to rescue from her mouth. When she thinks she spots activity, she leaps straight up several feet and lands on her target.

When I stopped laughing, I checked if I need to rescue another tiny creature.

Nature cares about itself. It needs us to protect it. In return it heals us.

I picked up the little blue bag, Mika dragged me up the dune. We said goodbye to the Coast for now.

Thank you, Mother Nature.

Find a beach, a walk, a forest, a bush, a plant, a stream. A dog, a cat, a kitten, a horse. A goat, a squirrel. Sky. Breezes. Green. Blue. Fall colors. Birds. Shut the rest of it out and remind yourself of what lasts, what’s worth protecting, what really matters.

A big goofy happy puppy covered in dead gull slime, exhausted from Big Day at the Beach, the friends you love, all the things.

Be grateful. There are plenty of reasons for that. Focus on those.

Let’s play. Now more than ever.

Photo by Timur Romanov on Unsplash

Thank you for reading. No matter how rough things are, how we choose to see them makes all the difference. Please consider who you touch, and how your words land. Every so often I go stupid, and immediately regret it. I am doing my best to do what I do best: focus on hope.

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