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Season of Hope

Having emerged from a particularly cold and sloppy winter, nothing feels better than the warm afternoons we’ve been treated to lately. The air smells like damp earth and new beginnings, and I am inspired to make improvements to my own small world, even if it means pulling a few weeds or vacuuming petrified potato chips from between the car seats. Or maybe it’s the new Obama-led “can-do” attitude wafting over our nation that is so intoxicating, that encourages us to hope and not be afraid to make our own fresh starts.

Take my 83-year-old father, who has made for some good material in this publication before. A widower for five years (having been married to my mother for more than half his life), he now has a lady friend (his term), an “older woman” who looks and behaves as if she were not a day over 70. She is a petite, vivacious former Texan who is fond of saying, “I’m just ornery enough for him.” She manages to get my father out and about and engaged in life again, for which I am grateful. When he and I meet for coffee, she is his favorite subject and, like anyone newly in love, he glows.

I’ve noticed that when my husband and I “double date” with my dad and his friend, their happiness seems to be contagious. The way they hold hands everywhere they go, the way they sit close together in a restaurant obviously enamored with one another causes people around them to smile. I find myself reaching for my husband’s hand beneath the table. The message they radiate is clear: Anyone can have what we have; it’s never too late.

After spending some time in the company of my father’s lady friend, I had to ask for her secret. How did she stay so energetic, so mentally sharp, so attractive? She gave me her answer in one word: Music. She’d been a first-chair violinist in a symphony for 35 years. She spent her summers as a young child traveling with her family, all of them musicians, from town to town in a chautauqua. She played the soprano sax. These days she again brings music to others, playing piano and leading sing-alongs for seniors at various locations.

While working on this issue, which is centered around beauty, I thought a lot about the secret my father’s friend had shared with me. What I had heard her say was that she had been, and still is, passionate about something all her own. So, as you read in these pages about the importance of good skin care, about the fun of body art, keep in mind this other tip from a beautiful person. Try a little passion on for size.

Happy Spring,

Karen Reed-Matthee
Editor and Co-founder

©March 2009 Caliope Publishing Company