The Olympics, Retirement Living and Inspiration to Keep Moving

By Ann Burnside Love

Let’s face it: The Olympics are a sedentary sport for us retirees. Right now we’re in the midst of our least active two-week period of the winter, if you’re as interested in the Winter Games as I am. Over the years I‘ve planned my Olympics-watching to make sure I don’t miss any ice skating. I’ll ignore much of the rest to keep my own life going appropriately.

But I get caught up watching skiers and snowboarders do all those hair-raising things they do. I’m always amazed when they take off their helmets and we see such glowingly fresh faces of the healthiest, most beautiful young people alive.

Then it occurred to me recently that much of the same dynamic is going on in my retirement community. (What?) There is a tall, slender lady in her eighties who walks two miles vigorously every day and has done so for years. She’s always glowing and positive, even though she has her own health challenges.

There are three men who walk down our hilly campus road and back up together early every morning, talking genially among themselves. They’ve been doing this since they moved here in their early seventies, and now it’s a good while since they passed 80. (Personally, I think they’ve probably solved the world problems many times over the years.) Others circle the campus after lunch, before dinner —whatever their best time is.

The same is true of dedicated swimmers and quite a number of people who regularly frequent the exercise equipment in our Wellness Center. Although they’re all “seniors” officially, you can tell from their faces and the way they move that their bodies benefit incredibly from their dedicated routines. One gentleman in his nineties walks in the swimming pool regularly “to keep the devil away!”

Of course, there are others, like me, who “think” about exercising and visualize swimming and pumping the Nu-Step in the gym, or walking the halls regularly, or whatever. But it doesn’t happen with regularity. As a dedicated writer, over the years I’ve made my decision, time and again, to stay in front of my computer “and finish just this one manuscript first!”

But now I live in a retirement community with all these opportunities right outside my door, and the health challenges I might try to use as excuses won’t give me a pass anymore. I’m going to keep thinking about all those healthy young faces at the Olympics — and the differences I see in people living in my own community who move a lot more than I do.

So, please excuse me right now. I need to get my bathing suit on and do a few laps in the nice warm pool. I know it will make me feel better — so I can write my next blog about the pluses of retirement communities. Carry on!

Ann’s blog appears here every Thursday. Comments are always welcome!