Lorie Sheffer provides us with much “food for thought” today as we journey through our Mid Life Celebration. Ladies and gentlemen, Lorie Sheffer:
What time frame do we put on reaching our dreams? How high do we aim? It’s fine if your dream is more of a whim, and it’s fine if you don’t have complete success. Sometimes getting there is half the fun. But sometimes we hit highs that we never imagined. For the following two ladies, life didn’t begin at 40; life began after 50.
Julia Child was not one to be rushed. She stood 6 feet 2 inches tall, came from a privileged background, was college educated and had jobs as an editor, as well as working for the Office of Strategic Forces during WWII. She married at age 34, which was unheard of in the 1940s, when most young women married right out of high school. Julia loved food, and she wanted something fun to do while living in Paris with her husband, so she took classes at Le Cordon Bleu. She wanted to teach American housewives how to cook the amazing foods she had mastered, and decided to translate recipes from French into English. It took her and her collaborators a decade to write Mastering the Art of French Cooking, and they were dismayed when their first manuscript was rejected. The legendary cookbook was finally published when Child was 49 years old. Julia’s television show, The French Chef, aired its first episode in 1963, when Julia was 51 years old.
Paula Hiers was a 4 year old growing up in Albany Georgia when Julia’s show aired. While Julia was teaching American cooks to “be fearless” in preparing dishes such as Boeuf a la Bourguignonne, Paula was learning how to make her Grandma Paul’s fried chicken. Paula grew up in much more humble surroundings. She married at a young age, lost both of her parents by the time she was 19, and raised her younger brother as well as her own two sons. Her husband, Jimmy Deen, drank heavily and Paula cracked under the stress. She started having severe panic attacks, which soon developed into agoraphobia. She would, at times, be unable to leave her home without having an incapacitating attack of severe anxiety.
Paula would find solace in cooking those wonderful comfort foods from her childhood. She later found the strength to take a job as a teller at a bank near her home, and save enough money to leave her abusive husband. To supplement her income, she made bag lunches for her young sons to sell to area business people. Out of that was born her catering business, The Bag Lady. From there, Paula opened her first restaurant, The Lady, in a tiny rented space at a local Best Western Hotel. Paula put in so much time at The Lady that some nights she slept in a booth for a few hours before starting a new day. She was not making much money, and she longed for a day when she could open a bigger restaurant for herself and her sons. After receiving a loan from her aunt, Paula opened The Lady and Sons in downtown Savannah Georgia. A food critic, who was passing through town, stopped on the suggestion of an innkeeper, and the rest is history.
Gordon Elliott got wind of Paula and featured her on Door Knock Dinners and Ready Set Cook. Paula’s warm presence and down home personality did the rest. Paula’s Home Cooking made its Food Network debut in 2002, when Paula was 55 years old. A star was born. Paula has since written numerous best selling cookbooks, she has a total of three shows on Food Network and sells her own line of cookware. In 2004, she married her best friend, Michael Groover. Unlike Julia, Paula never set foot in a cooking school.
Don’t count yourself out of the game just because of age. Think what these ladies, and the rest of us, would have missed had Julia and Paula thought they were too old to dream.
Thank you for visiting Mid Life Celebration. I know most of you are insanely busy. How? Because I’m one of you. It’s also easy to predict that most of you will not have time to click on this video, especially if you’re reading from a handheld device.
So this is for the others. The few. The ones who know full well that life is hard and that carving out time has to be some one’s responsibility.
Did you watch the sunset last night? Or the sunrise this morning?
Time marches on. This is a beautiful story. Just like last night’s sunset. But you really have no idea do you?
How much is enough? A famous and sultry actress from yesteryear, Mae West once said, “Too much of a good thing is wonderful”.
We can assume she wasn’t talking about stuff. Anyway, the question still remains. And some collect stuff that defies logic, common sense, basic hygiene, and fundamental organizational skills for practical living.
Excessive collecting can complicate relationships and alienate people from the ones they love, just for starters.
Most of us certainly don’t have the answers, nor do we have any appetite for supporting this behavior. If we did, would that make us co-dependent? Like being co-dependent with an alcoholic in denial?
Click here to read “Why do we collect so much stuff?”
Each day, do you attempt to simplify? De-clutter? Detoxify? Purge? Reevaluate?
“When everybody tells you that you are being idealistic or impractical, consider the possibility that everybody could be wrong about what is right for you.” — Gilbert Kaplan
If anyone has anything to help my Family find peace and comfort as we say good bye to our beloved Canine Son, Carter, please know you may leave comments here or email them to jeff.noel@me.com , if you’d like to remain private.
Ever wonder how you’ll handle all of the challenges you face today?
And let’s suppose we actually do get a handle on our overwhelming challenges, then what?
What are the odds that we’ll be overwhelmed again soon?
Maybe I should go back to drinking everyday. After a few drinks, we are medicated enough to stop worrying about today – it can wait until tomorrow. That’s a nice relief – no more worry today.
But it mostly can’t wait. If we do wait, more stuff is added to our “pile”.
Then we reach for our “midlife medication”.
Why we fail to look in the rear view mirror and see what is coming is beyond me.
Well, it used to be beyond me. Now, it’s staring me in the face. Every day.
It’s a ton of work, but at least I’m being honest with myself.
Find a million ways to get and stay motivated, right?
The Internet offers limitless opportunities to get valuable information. One of the things I do is experiment with various email subscriptions to helpful mid life health topics.
Everyday Health is one of those that gives more than I can keep up with. However, I do scan every email they send and here’s one that resonates. It may also help you.
Click here to gain insight on mid life hoarding and the possible link to OCD.
Insights and knowledge help us move closer to having Peace at Mid Life, even if we are, or know people, who are Hoarder’s (with or without OCD).
As we all strive to stay alive in this brutal recession and down economy, it is the most creative and the hardest working that not only survive, but thrive.
How is it possible to thrive in a great depression? Well, for starters, we’ve already mentioned it: be the most creative and hardest working in your industry.
Like this Central Florida Real Estate Agent. She placed her business cards in the most creative and unusual place ever seen. Shot a One-Take-You Tube video and posted it Super Bowl Sunday.
Yesterday, my Google Alert for Mid Life Celebration captured this viral spread of that You Tube video and the most amazing, simple, and creative Florida Real Estate Marketing you’ve seen in a long time.
Click here to check it out. It’s brief (20 sec), powerful and it might just be the catalyst for your next successful, creative idea to market your business.
Men of a certain age is the target audience for Mid Life Celebration. Baby Boomer men, and Gen X men over 40 years old.
All are welcome, of course. Yesterday’s Mid Life Celebration Guest Blogger, Lorie Sheffer, recommended “Men of a Certain Age” on TNT, tonight (Monday’s) at 10PM.
Click here to view Men of a Certain Age website. Viewing it will give you a quick idea whether or not you want to check it out. I’ll have to record it because 9:30PM is “lights out”.
Took a quick look yesterday. Really liked what I saw.
If you’ve seen it, and feel like it, share a quick comment about the show. Happy Monday.
Mid Life Celebration readers, I am pleased to introduce our Guest Blogger, Lorie Sheffer, from York, Pennsylvania. Lorie and I graduated from Spring Grove Area High School in 1997 1977. Lorie has a spin on midlife that will entertain and enlighten you. You are in for a treat. Take it away Lorie….
My email box usually contains at least one “Stupid, clueless men” joke a week, sent by my gal pals. The most recent: Q: What is gross stupidity? A: 144 men in one room.
This is one of the kinder jokes. Most involve man parts and the use/misuse of said parts. I’m not so politically correct or dishonest as to say some of this stuff isn’t pretty darned funny. But underneath it all there is this undercurrent of a battle of the sexes as to who has it rougher, especially when it comes to aging. As a woman who has always had male friends, I seem to find myself defending men more and more often these days.
I was out shopping with my grandson a few years ago and the check out girl at the grocery store, when speaking to him, referred to me as “Mom”. “She’s my grandmother”, Carter corrected her. I actually looked into that sweet little face of his and asked him to “Shut it!” Actually, since I am trying to be honest, it was more of a hiss. Was I becoming so age obsessed that I had hoped if some kid who had an after school job checking groceries mistook grandma for mom that magically made it so? As if “Grandmother” is a dirty word. No wonder my grandson looked puzzled. To a small child, Grandma equals magic!
This was about the time the realization hit me. We women are so obsessed with our changing hormones and expanding waist, our hot flashes and our mood swings, we seem to forget that aging is no picnic for the men, either. We tend to talk about it, while men seem to remain quiet for fear of appearing weak. Notice what the overwhelming theme of the commercials are when “guy shows” are on TV. They usually involve a 50-something couple in claw foot bathtubs (I still don’t understand the tubs), baby boomers giving one another “that look” before dancing down the hallway toward the bedroom, or my personal favorite, the teenaged girls advising newly divorced Dad he would be dateable if he used some man-color on that gray hair of his. (Maybe someone should tell Mr. Clooney and Mr. Gere they would be attractive to women if only they hit the Grecian Formula.)
I honest to God have a male friend who colors his chest hair to cover the gray. If men aren’t lucky enough to have hair TO color, then surely they can send for some Rogain. Because, grand sense of humor that God seems to have, men start to lose hair where they want it around the same time women sprout hair in places that send them running to the waxing salons in droves.
Our age group is being bombarded by an industry that is literally making billions of dollars by playing to our insecurities, when in fact most times all you need is some dim light and a little patience. Most men would be thrilled to have their wives call them sexy or hot of whatever words we use to describe the above-mentioned George and Richard. I would be willing to bet most men are so concerned with their own age related issues that they don’t notice if our legs (or chins) are freshly shaved.
Test it out; say something nice to your significant other. Give a genuine compliment once a day, and let them know you appreciate them. Really, I think that’s all any of us wants. Maybe if we all just stepped outside of ourselves and tried to see through the eyes of the opposite sex, we would realize that we all have our issues. We’re in this together.
A friend sent me an email forward photo of a pretty teenaged girl, circa 1968; below the photo was the question, “Where are the cute hippie girls from the 60s?”
I scrolled down to another photo, this of a totally naked, very overweight, out shape, gray haired woman in her 60s. She was covered with stretched out and faded tattoos of Woodstock era images. She wore only flip-flops as she walked down the street, head held high. Amazingly, she looked happy.
Humor goes a long way, so long as the object of the joke is laughing WITH us. As Robert Browning wrote over a century ago, “Grow old along with me, the best is yet to be.”
