Let's Get Your Party Started: Growing up, aging, and dying—a Martian's perspective

If Martians were to visit Earth would they be perplexed to find that some folks need a reminder to celebrate each year of their lives? Do you mark your birthdates with cake and a bit of frivolity? Do you spend any quiet time on your birthdays to reflect on the life path you have thus far taken? Do you eagerly anticipate and map out the trajectory of the next year and all the subsequent years of your life?

Would our inter-planetary buddies wonder why many of us think we cease to grow as we exit our teen years or why we dread aging and fear dying? You will likely enjoy this book if you:

• feel a smidgen of unease about aging and dying;
• want to see if worms and chickens can teach life lessons;
• are interested in what fellow life travelers say about growing up, aging, and dying;
• wish to explore cutting-edge research and innovative theories regarding various aspects of our life cycle; and
• want practical, fun ideas to celebrate every age and phase of life to get your party started!

The author considers herself an expert “dier” due to a few near-death episodes, which didn’t involve any cool out-of-body stuff, but did kindle a lot of interesting ideas and questions about why we think what we think regarding each phase of our lives. This sometimes amusing, sometimes quite serious book is not about whether there’s an afterlife; it’s about you in the here and now, filled with many ideas and questions for you to ponder.

In this book, you will be introduced to a variety of perspectives on these and other issues with the intent that by having read it you will live a more examined life. If you are satisfied with your current life path you will get some cool suggestions for more fun. If, on the other hand, you realize that the story of your life could use some editing to address:

• fear – such as fear of public speaking, loneliness, or disasters, or fear of growing up, aging, and dying,
• habits – which you have but would rather avoid, or
• limitations – which keep you from experiencing the fullest, happiest, and most adventurous existence that you can imagine,

then join me for an in-depth (never to be mapped again in all future human history) examination of your amazing life. Let’s get your party started!

Blue, White, and Gingham Collar: Some people are considered “blue collar” due to their livelihood in the trades. Others are noted to be “white collar” due to a livelihood dependent upon academic credentials. My life has bridged the two.

The Blue Collar refers to my roles as a loving granddaughter of subsistence farmers and an intensely proud daughter of a military father who became a barber and a farmer’s daughter who became a beautician. My first job was in third grade, as a waitress. Subsequently, I worked as a babysitter, started a yard service and housekeeping business, was employed as a department store clerk, and later a clothing salesperson. I was pretty much continuously employed in one of the above jobs through college.

The White Collar refers to my roles as a physician trained in emergency medicine and psychiatry. My first desire to become a physician was expressed at age three.

The Gingham Collar refers to my life as a synthesis of the blue and the white-collar backgrounds. My current positions include wife, mother, and grandmother. I am a physician, writer, and farmer, and, as you’re aware by now, a yoga instructor, Reiki teacher, bee watcher, worm wrangler, party animal, and right-brained metaphysical wanderer.

But there is more yet to come. Perhaps I could set a world record for the number of friends I make in the coming years. My life plan includes at a minimum further development as a world traveler (to visit all the friends I will make from among you readers), an adventurer, a disaster volunteer, an athlete, an elder role model, a speaker . . . I want to develop my farm as a place of learning (a place where instructors could come to teach bee, chicken, and worm husbandry, meditation skills, how to weld, or how to can vegetables). I’m looking for help to establish the first chapters of the Egaliatarian Contemplators, the Guild of Elders, and the Renaissance Mentors.