I wish this little section could also be a ‘STOP! READ THIS NOW!’ note sent back to Past Patricia of the 1950’s-1990’s. I would tell her, “Guess what? We are writing about ourselves right now for a book we just wrote!” I would say, “please stop worrying about
EVERYTHING so much. You cannot imagine how much you are going to enjoy being 75!
It’s nothing like what you have got cooked up in your very neurotic imagination. Calm DOWN.
You are going to discover tons of unexpectedly
delightful things – like photography…and painting…and just LAUGHING…sometimes for no discernible reason! Absolutely every single day in your future contains at least one good thing; and at this age, you now have the sense to notice that when it happens.” I would also tell her this: “90% of the things you always worried about happening, never did come to pass.” Most of all, I would tell her, “No matter what, you will always be OK. Some people think being 75 makes you old, but boy, oh boy, 75 makes you smart and way less concerned about the world’s opinion of you. Being worried about what people think always made you more not OK than almost anything else.” But the thing I would most want her to know and to DO is, “Find something and BE GRATEFUL for it! It is the most powerful thing you can do to cause more good things to keep popping up in your life.” And really, there isn’t much of anything else you need to know about 2025 Patricia.