Even though daylight savings arrived way back on March 13, and the first day of spring on the 21st, it just didn’t seem like spring. When the sun finally came out from behind the rain clouds last week, so did I. Entering our backyard garden for the first time in days, there were the irises, purple and proud, and a handful of golden daffodils making their presence known. And the birds! My God, the riotous birds in full voice. I’m a nut for spring!
A few of you, I am pleased to say, loved The Blue Zones (Dan Buettner), the book I mentioned to you last time, before I took my long winter’s nap. The title is misleading without its subtitle: Lessons for Living Longer from the People Who’ve Lived the Longest.
The world’s Blue Zones “are communities where common elements of lifestyle, diet, and outlook have led to an amazing quantity–and quality–of life.” The book is full of the best current scientific research on aging, as well as rare bits of wisdom and humor, straight from the mouths of people who continue to live full, rich, meaningful, vigorous lives well into their 90’s and beyond.
One man still water skis at the age of 99; another, at 88, in Okinawa, still fishes daily for his family’s food; another, in her 90’s in Costa Rica, bakes tortillas every morning and walks five miles to the closest village to sell them; and my own personal favorite, a 100-year-old woman in Nicoya, a remote town also in Costa Rica, spends her days “cooking, splitting logs, and using a machete to clear brush from her yard.”
What these people worlds away have to say holds deep and practical relevance for us. Again, forget about the see-saw conversation about balance, and listen for new ways to think and add value to the quality of your life.
For more information about creating your own personal blue zone right where you are, check out www.bluezones.com.
Our dear Bonnie Bonetti-Bell was the force behind our Career/Life Coaching services, until her passing in 2019. As a principal of our firm, Bonnie had an innate talent for seeing the best in people. Moreover, she helped others see the best in themselves. Bonnie is fondly remembered and deeply missed.