Encouragement: Ending November with Thanksgiving and Inspiration! Live until you die!

Most likely you have over indulged on yummy turkey or ham and all the fixings, including delicious desserts and are ready to shed the gained pounds as quickly as possible. When you are considering those pounds to lose, think about your health and get back on your healthy diet as soon as possible.
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While you are at it,
think about these lovely women,
who are inspirations to
all women and
are barely even known:
​
Bridget Riley - 87 year old English painter who had an exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art in Paris ten years ago and has continues to win awards for her artwork. Her work is currently on display at the Nelson Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, Missouri. 
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​Paula Rego - 83 year old artist who still works up to 12 hours a day, six days a week. She offers this insight to how she feels about working: "Even if I'm tired when I start working, bu the end I have a lot of energy," she says. "It's very important for women to keep working." She adds, "Hopefully (my life) will end at my easel - I'll just fall down sideways. Either that or in a drunken stupor."

An amazing woman, Rego worked on her art while raising a family and taking care of her husband with Multiple Sclerosis. She faced discrimination also, but she never let it detour her from her work.

She made this statement:

“When I first went to art school, I think the women there
were picked on whether
they would make good wives for the male artists,
whether they would have
an understanding of the troubled males.
Women were good either for going to bed with
or making good wives – particularly if they came with their own money and
​could support the men.”
​

Gillian Ayres - abstract English painter, who died this year at the age of 88, made this statement at age 78:

"Old age is a bastard,
really, but it's only when you see a photograph of yourself that it is the most awful thing.
I don't feel any different to how I did when I was 15.
I would like the time again -
I would just paint."

She worked up until her death.
​

​Maria Lassing - Australian artist who died at age 95, never married or had children. She didn't want to give up her art. She worked right up to her death. One of her biggest shows was when she was 89 years old in London.

On not having a family and devoting her life to her art, she commented:

“When I was young,
I was clever enough
to know that
if I got married or had children,
I would be eaten.”
​

None of these women did not let age slow them down or stop them. They continued to work up until they passed from this world. Of course, they were doing things they loved.

Just because you are working now in a job that you hate or dislike, doesn't mean that you should work at it until you die. It means that you may have to work at it until you are able to retire and then start your next career doing something you love.

The message here is to keep active,
keep working,
keep living – live until you physically die,
don't die
before your dead.

Have you started a second career? Are you over the age of 50 and doing a job you love and never want to leave? Are you staying engaged in life? Please share your stories, others will be encouraged by them – I know I will!

XOXO