Participants urged to forget rocking chairs and reinvent lives to be healthy and happy.
BETHEL – It all began with an empty rocking chair. The rocking chair, as a symbol of the sedentary life of aging, took on a new life at the Aging Well conference held Saturday at Crescent Park School.
As Jackie Cressy, chairwoman of the Western Mountain Senior College’s directors, welcomed the approximately 40 people attending the conference, she pointed to an empty chair behind her on stage, recasting it as a symbol of the vibrancy of the local senior community.
“We’re all too busy aging well to sit in a rocker,” she said.
Through the collaboration of the senior college and SAD 44’s Adult & Community Education, bringing together a variety of talents and resources within the local community, local seniors never lack for activities and learning opportunities that keep them up and out of the rocking chair.
Presenters and exhibits ranging from AARP to the Bethel Historical Society provided information, discussions and workshops throughout the day.
“Because of the vibrancy of our community, there is always something to do,” said Jeanie Waite, director of Adult & Community Education. Adult & Community Education provides staffing and infrastructure support to the senior college, opening many programs, such as the Aging Well conference, to more than just senior college members.
The Western Mountain Senior College, an affiliate of the National Resource Center for Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, offers learning opportunities from watercolor classes and writing workshops to trips to France. Membership is $20 per year and open to anyone in the western mountain community 50 years of age or older, and their spouses.
For more information, people may contact Cressy at 824-0508 or [email protected].
The keynote speaker of the conference, Kali Lightfoot, presented “Confessions of a Aging Couch Potato,” in which she told of the her life from high school gym teacher to college professor, wilderness ranger and outdoor guide, and her work with Elderhostel and ultimately to her current position as executive director of the National Resource Center for Osher Lifelong Learning Institute.
Lightfoot said people who constantly reinvent their lives are ultimately happier, healthier and live longer.
“My lifelong conundrum has been taking care of myself,” said Lightfoot, who playfully reinvented herself from “a recovering athlete” and then “a recovering gym teacher” and more of a “couch broccoli” than couch potato.
Even though we seem to know we need to stay active to maintain our health as we age, she said, understanding this is not enough.
“Understanding is the booby prize,” Lightfoot said.
“Joy is a much more powerful motivator,” she added. That joy, she said, is cultivated through recognizing “good people that happen to us” and “taking people inside our lives.”
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