On my eighty-four-and-a-half birthday, and Jesus’ Day, I’ve achieved my age of relinquishment. I’m happily writing my blog while my daughter and daughter-in-love have taken over my kitchen, my grandchildren are happily doing projects they received as gifts mere hours ago, my husband is not telling me what to do and how to do and when to do (he likes being in charge), my sister is waiting for me to pick her up at the assisted living place where she has finally taken up residence after almost a year needing to be near family, and I can fully engage in nothing at all at the moment. My daughter is not telling me how to do things I long-ago taught her how to do, and my original plans for where things should go or how things should be made and being overruled, one by one, and I’m coming to grips with being an accessory to all things.
In a way, it’s hard to lose grip on what I’ve achieved over a lifetime of learning, but it’s also freeing. I need to step down, step away, and learn the lessons from other residents at Glenbrooke. So many of them have no purpose in life. I hope I don’t get to that point of hopelessness and worthlessness because they are alone with no goals left to achieve. But, I’m hovering on the brink.
I have a few things going for me. My writing group loves to see what I have for them next. They’ve achieved so much in a year. My children look after me, advising, guiding, and doing the tasks I did long ago to prepare them for successful lives. I need to learn to receive. Now, I hear Mary asking the girls if they’d like to crack the eggs to make deviled eggs. They answer, “No!” One asks for help with her project. She’s being called to the kitchen and has to leave her project.
Meanwhile, I’m out of the fray, now an observer in my own kitchen. In a way, it’s refreshing, but it’s also a relinquishing of my “I can do it,” or “Let me help,” or something like that. I’m learning the generational “pass the torch,” and will try to go quietly into the night.
Wherever we are in the measurement of life-journey time, let us accept our role with dignity and grace. I’m trying to do that with varying degrees of success, and that’s all right with me. 
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