I had had this epiphany of an idea for a blog post long before the current coronavirus panic, which makes it all the more relevant. What, you ask, is JOMO? Let’s start first with FOMO (Fear of Missing Out). It can be easy to get sucked into FOMO when looking at all the marvelous travel pics, etc that others share in social media. You have to keep reminding yourself:

What I’ve realized is that I actually have JOMO – Joy of Missing Out. Don’t get me wrong, we love to travel and go to festivals and concerts and sporting events, and…and…and… just as much as we ever did. But we also delight in having a weekend with nothing planned – just all free time. Or sometimes when dinner plans fall through, we drop a happy sigh because now the whole evening just loosened up. I no longer feel the need to have the latest and greatest ‘whatever’. Embracing the most current fashion trends is less interesting to me. (Is it because the trends themselves are rather ho-hum? Or is it I who has become ho-hum? Don’t answer that!) As I mentioned about the current coronavirus spread and all of the resulting cancellations of various events and the encouragement to stay home, it’s actually playing into my JOMO – I’ll be happy to curl up with a book on my couch for a while.

Another pleasure of growing older is a renewed appreciation of the afternoon nap. When we were little we had to be forced to stop our full-tilt running and playing and take a nap. Not now! If I’m able to take a 20-minute snooze around 3:30 or 4:00, I’m all over it. I start with a cup of tea, my book, toss a throw over myself and then just wait for that nap to happen. It always does, and it always feels fabulous.

Another pleasure I’m feeling ever more grateful for as time goes on is modern medicine. Most recently I’ve been grateful for the ice machine that has made my husband’s recovery from rotator cuff surgery a breeze, along with long-acting nerve blocks, coupled with pain medicine, that rendered him literally pain-free. The model of ice machine that I’ve linked to isn’t our exact model but it is the brand. This has saved countless ice pack replacements throughout that first week and really kept him comfortable. Plus – we’ll have this machine for any other aches and pains we might have that could benefit from ice. I’m thinking specifically of my knee as I write this, but I’m sure there will be other body parts that will be screaming out for the ice machine in the future. (You scream…I scream…we all eventually scream for an ice machine!)  

I guess you know you’re getting older when you get as excited about an ice machine as you do about a new piece of jewelry (well, almost!)

Thanks for reading – stay stylish!

Adena