A golden oldies’ guide for the ultimate stay-at-home experience

Keep calm, and read our phones! Do you do that too? With an iPhone, no one is ever alone. I do wonder who gave telemarketers phones, harassing the old agers at home. While I was reading my life coaching hacks, I learned not to catastrophize in daily life. Additionally, I was advised to make plans and take small steps outside my comfort zone. 

Say what?  I asked. Sitting here in my book nook, I turn off my phone. Being realistic, but optimistic, I wonder what is wrong with what I am doing now? Or, indeed, what most golden oldies are doing right now. 

It is late afternoon, my comfort zone for this old lady grey has many attractions. It is good to be unplugged from technology, says my online guru I read. So I picked up my pen. I switched off my phone and plugged it into the cord. 

Ah, bliss, I can express my opinion, in an achievable way. Golden oldies must not be discouraged. If boomers wish to do skydiving or parasailing, go for it, and seek senior adventures. Attasilvers! Here, I must say I am living with a couple of mobility issues, some days a mild knee disability.

I do enjoy my daily moderate walk, except when it is pouring rain, of course. If I walked in the rain, I would shrink. So I would be shorter than I already am. That is my encroaching comfort zone. Short stuff. Never mind, we need rain for our great Australian dams in summer. 

It is football o’clock. So I stay in my comfort zone, viewing or listening to my team. We can all enjoy simple pleasures. I am listening to my beloved Collingwood. This requires a great sense of humour some days, which I have definitely acquired. 

Listening and barracking hard at home, brings to my nostalgia vignettes a tale of a great teaching highlight. This is a story of the days of the seventies, another time,  another place. The then-modern popular habit of journaling was fresh and innovative.

Dewy-eyed, I asked my class of Grade Six treasures to write in a brand new exercise book each. My students were to share their innermost emotions, thoughts and feelings, so deep and meaningful, with their noble educator. 

Silence ensued. One student, M. I shall call him, was a very reluctant learner. He had finally made it to the top of the primary school heap, heading for secondary school. He picked up his pen. I held my breath. 

Yes! Student M was writing at last. Teaching was so me, I was a success! An hour rolled by.  I waited, wondering what student M was writing.  I collected the journals. I opened the page where student M had inscribed in large black letters, and I quote: “F. U.K! When are the Pies gonna win!”

I had to hide a quiet grin. It was a good, sound, but rhetorical question. Yes, it was that time in the seventies, that time of year. Collingwood had thrown away another potential premiership. The writing was not in student M.’s comfort zone. But, hey, this was his personal self-expression.

I must say that this epic effort did not get shared with the nuns or his parents. What a teaching success that journaling was! He could not even spell the “F” bomb correctly. Nor could I correct him. I filed that little deep and meaningful writing exercise in the rubbish bin, secretly, never to see the light of day again. 

That is what journaling is for; if anyone wishes to confide their inner emotions in a positive way. Modern educators would describe that as a classroom micro-aggression. That is quite common in Grade Six, even today. I can state that no longer teaching in a classroom enhances this silver comfort zone. Lovely!

Now Collingwood has thrown away another match-winning lead. Sometimes things do stay the same. We older greys learnt long ago to ski the bumps. I sink into my nanny nap, listening to my boys. Solo nesting is now my comfort zone. My vital signs are normal, so that is great. No need to annoy my capable health providers on this super duper Saturday of armchair sport. 

What is your comfort zone? Are you staying in today?