“I am an idealist. I don’t know where I am going, but I am on my way.” (Carl Sandburg)
A new blog, mental suitcase unpacked. Words tumble onto an unfamiliar format. And somehow it’s okay. I forget I’m afraid of the technical world. At the tender age of sixty-six I am learning. Sure, I can maneuver my old web page without a map, but I could be writing on an island at that site. No other boat but mine can access it. Only two people ever figured out how to leave a comment. After Sixty, a time to begin lives at http://www.terrypetersen.webs.com. I have not erased recent blogs. Stories, poems, my published Christmas stories are at that site. Waiting. To stay? For an eviction notice? I sit next to my friend Catherine Castle as she explains my new passageways here at WordPress. I understand one moment, then wonder where all my synapse connections went the next. A normal process when it comes to absorbing something new.
Another moment comes two hours later at water Zumba class. I tell Tiffany, the instructor, that I have never considered myself a dancer. She says that she noticed I’m on the correct side during each exercise. A big improvement to me since the moves are quick and not necessarily simple. Of course there are no underwater cameras. I suspect few people in this class qualify for a choreographed team. Doesn’t matter. The water gives me permission to pretend I am an underwater diver, an aqua biologist, an Olympic swimmer, or a mermaid. Okay, a mermaid with the agility of a rusty metal frog and the imagination of a child. Let the challenges continue. Age is only illusion within the spirit.
For anyone, older or younger, who stumbles upon this page, what does it mean to you to dive into something new?
terrypetersen 
Hi Terry,
So fine to find you here at WordPress.com 🙂
Gratefully looking forward to following you, and looking forward to the present moment.
Here are some selected gems from Epictetus, my favorite Greek stoic philosopher:
Be careful to leave your sons well instructed rather than rich, for the hopes of the instructed are better than the wealth of the ignorant.
Do not seek to bring things to pass in accordance with your wishes, but wish for them as they are, and you will find them.
He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not, but rejoices for those which he has.
If thy brother wrongs thee, remember not so much his wrong-doing, but more than ever that he is thy brother.
The essence of philosophy is that a man should so live that his happiness shall depend as little as possible on external things.
There is only one way to happiness and that is to cease worrying about things which are beyond the power of our will.
To accuse others for one’s own misfortunes is a sign of want of education.
To accuse oneself shows that one’s education has begun.
To accuse neither oneself nor others shows that one’s education is complete.
We have two ears and one mouth so that we can listen twice as much as we speak.
With continuing gratitude and love,
Bill
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Hi, Bill! Looks like you had a lot to say. But then as a good teacher you have been doing a lot of “diving” into the new!
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Yeah! You are up and running! Great job, Terry.
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