As I was contemplating the mighty big birthday I am celebrating this week, I stumbled on this tiny video. Yeah, that’s it. Role models.

Italian ladies skipping rope in sandals.

You can see the girls they were. They’re still there!

It reminded me of “Isabel Croft Jumping Rope”, captured by the great photographer Arlene Gottfried on one of her many wanderings around New York City. GIRLJOY is there also. Maybe that’s the secret.

Isabel Croft Jumping Rope by Arlene Gottried, Courtesy of Daniel Cooney Fine Art, New York

I’m going to CELEBRATE!

(Since my big birthday runs into Memorial Day Weekend, I’m going to take the time to think about a few things. I’ll be back June 7th.)

View a beautiful piece about Gottfried, with many photographs, in the New Yorker.

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From Youth to Old Age in 4 Minutes, Imperceptibly
Your Wisdom App + Clint Eastwood on How Not to Get Old
Arlene Gottfried on the Benefits of Wandering

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10 replies on “Role Models for Those Feeling Ancient”

  1. Happy birthday, Sally! Thank you for Improvised Life. It is such a gift!

  3. Happy birthday – you gift me with joy and food for thought and inspiration all the time. I am so grateful for you. Have a wonderful birthday with as much self indulgence as you can manage!!!

  4. Hi Sally, Have you watched “The Babushkas of Chernobyl” documentary? Talk about spirit in old age! A Happy Big Birthday to you!

  5. Birthdays come and birthdays go. However, “We are always the same age inside.” Gertrude Stein. Keep hopping and skipping, Sally!

  6. Happy Birthday, Sally!

  7. I recommend going down every slide you come across. When I turned 70, I said f*ck it, and as long as there were no kids in the way, down I go. pure joy.

  8. That is EXCELLENT advice, which I will follow. I also love SWINGS, looking up at the trees….

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