I had lunch with some old ladies today. I like old ladies! They like to eat and laugh and talk and eat — with each other. Me too.
One of them, Louise, told me she has been making quilts. “They aren’t quiet,” she said. She isn’t either. I like her.
Another one, who is Irish, told me London is her favorite city. It’s mine too! We bonded — Londonishly. I like her.
Several of us talked about the need to connect better with other people. It is possible to “change,” one of them effused, to grow toward being more social. She recently moved in with her daughter and her daughter’s husband, and she told us that she has come to love her son-in-law. “I love him, she said. “It wasn’t easy,” she added.
Amazing! She’s in her eighties! I like her.
I used to be shy; now I’m not — way not! Some of my friends used to be very quiet. They sure aren’t now. Like me, they’ve morphed. We’ve become little old ladies, groupish, inclined toward eating with other people while laughing. Tough guys and CEO-type girls can learn stuff from old ladies.
I believe in personality miracles. What was socially dead can live again, and inspire others to pop their turtlish heads out of their safe shells too. At any age, we can make new friends.
It seems to me that we humans tend toward shy, quiet, guarded and reserved, but that we would be happier if we became free, open, loud, zany, nonjudgmental, safe and more social.
The little old ladies think so too.
Thrive! 