Aging into youth: A Dorrie Koller story

My friend, the artist Dorrie Koller, sent me an email describing her journey back to enchantment after spending a few years caring for her dying husband and mother. 

All lived in the same home. As Dorrie put it, even her home felt aged. Things in disrepair had to remain that way, she was too busy caring for two loved ones disintegrating even faster.

She talked about about how she too aged through the process, especially feeling her mother’s tightness of breath, eating slowwwwly in tandem with her.

In her mind, she aged by decades also . . . for a time.

A couple of years after their deaths, now this!

I was shocked to discover that I was only 59. When I think of all I have survived I cannot believe that I am only 59. Why it seems so young! But then I feel so good! I am selling the house and looking forward to opening up the rest of my life to excitement, fun, and creativity. I’m not worried about aging anymore. I have already done that, felt that, been there. But I have decided to come back.

And once you make that decision, you are forever young.

The human spirit rejuvenates if you give it time, if you give it space, and maybe even if you just give it a puppy, as Dorrie did for herself. (Frankie!)