This couple is enjoying their living space and being with each other as they plan on growing older with each other and their home as they remain in their comfortable setting long-term.
Being thankful that we can age in place
In this season of gratitude and thanksgiving, consider how grateful we can be that we can select to remain in our homes as we get older – perhaps never moving from them.
We may have lived in other homes before finding the one that we have now and the one we want to remain in long-term. The same holds true for our clients. So let’s celebrate that we have found a home that meets our needs that we want to stay in – and that we can do so.
Our current home may not be perfect, but we like it. We like what it is now or what we think it can become for us with just a few modifications.
Having a home provides security
Whether it’s a rental apartment or home that we have occupied for a while and one that we enjoy, or a home or condominium apartment where we live that we purchased, it’s a place we can call ours. It provides real security as a place or safe haven we can return to whenever we have stepped away (for a brief period of time or longer) for work, recreation, shopping, or vacation. It’s a safe haven for us.
While our home may not meet all of our needs – if we were to sit down and compose our “must-have” list – it feels comfortable to us. It allows us to be ourselves and removes the stress of trying to identify a different home that might meet our needs better than our current one – assuming it exists without creating it anew from the ground up.
To the extent that we feel that our home could provide for our needs or allow us to be ourselves better than what is the case now, we can make improvements and modifications to it.
We can make changes to our homes
The whole idea of aging in place, which we are celebrating as a fantastic concept for ourselves and others, has two major components. First, it means that we have found our long-term home and that we do not need to consider a move from it – allowing us the time and energy that would be absorbed in pursuing such a move to be used in other pursuits.
Second, anything that is not quite to our liking or something that poses a safety risk to ourselves or our guests can be changed. We can make improvements to our living spaces – just a little or something more grand. We can do it once or revisit our needs over time.
Regardless, aging in place can be accepting our homes for what they are and making the most of them as we continue to live in them over time, or it can be identifying issues (little ones or bigger ones) that we want to fix, adjust, repair, or modify as we continue to live in our homes.