SAVE THE DATE!
WED APRIL 29  1:00 - 3:00
WLLO Villages Annual Meeting and Celebration
Lake Oswego Recreation and Aquatic Center, 17525 Stafford Rd
(In the old golf course club house)

All Members and Volunteers are encouraged to attend!  Visit with old friends and meet new friends!  We will celebrate the past year, enjoy yummy treats and hold our annual election for WLLO Village Council members and officers.  
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A User’s Guide to Aging
Lessons for 70 and beyond.

All that is true about aging is illuminated on a walk
By Anne Lamont
 

I was out today in the early morning walking with a close friend of 64 years named Shelley Adams. Despite some huge losses over time, she is always overtly positive. I don’t normally like this in a person. I make a rare exception for her. We hike several times a week beside our local creek, now a twisting, flowing stream that rushes over rocks, mint and twigs.

Rainer Maria Rilke was only partially right when he wrote that “life holds you in its hands and will not let you fall,” because both Shelley and I, like all older people, have been dropped. But life also at some point pulls you back to your feet. What do you do in between, during times of loss or general dread? My friend Tom Weston, a Jesuit priest, always reminds me, “We do what’s possible.” I hate that.

Okay, fine: What is possible? The practical, simple and kind. We work, love and help others as best we can, gawk at nature, rest. Is that it? Pretty much.
This is a little disappointing, but age teaches us that kind, simple and practical are enough, even in the face of the worst things we’ve lived through: suicides, mental illness, odious leaders, sudden death. My friend Don was called one day by an aging and suicidal friend. His friend asked, “What is the point of it all?” After a moment, Don replied gently, “Mornings are nice.” And, wildly, it was enough. His friend improved.

I cannot hike the uphill trails here anymore because of my hip, so we do what’s possible: take four 10-minute laps back and forth along the creek. Everything that is true about aging appears to me on these walks.

On our first lap, Shelley and I catch up. We’ve always been talkers, readers, movie lovers. What was true about us at 6 years old is true about us now. We gossip, laugh a lot, quibble. We looked so similar as small kids, with green eyes and white-blonde hair. We still do. We’re built about the same. I’m a bit taller and smaller-boned, but otherwise we could be sisters. And like sisters, we can annoy each other, and weaponize silence. Families, sigh.

I grew up at her house. Her mother was my other mother, who saw how amazing I was on the inside, not just how much better I could be doing. Shelley and I went through childhood and puberty together, played competitive tennis for years as partners and then didn’t see each other much for 40 years. We raised kids, buried parents; sad, scary things have happened to us both, as they have to everyone by a certain age. Now, we’re slower, less busy, a bit goofy.

For instance, this morning, while searching for the word “coaster,” the closest I could come up with was “coffee pad.” She laughs so hard when I say this, she has to cross her legs, and then almost loses her balance.

By the second lap, our bodies have loosened up, and we talk a bit less and look around a lot more, and listen. The creek is the place where the water and the land are in constant conversation. My vision is often blurred by dry eye, but there is a grace to myopia: I’m less fixated.

We walked this morning in raincoats because it was drizzling off and on, even as the sun shone through faintly. In my family, we always announced during a sun shower that it must be a monkey’s birthday somewhere. In Akira Kurosawa's “Dreams,” a mother tells her child, “The sun is shining through the rain. This is the time when foxes have their weddings.”

Like most old friends, we can bobble along without talking for stretches. I listen for the soft orchestral music of the woods on either side of the path. After scanning the illuminated green scrim of trees ahead and far away, I pull closer in on individual trees, all arms and elbows and long legs. The trees just stand around, as is their wont. The drizzle plays them. What instruments are they? Mostly woodwinds, maybe oboes, some flutier, and then dark, dark trees, like kettle drums, like patches of life.

Because we go back so far, Shelley and I know each other’s souls and shadows, and each other’s major screw-ups, and there is comfort in this. Also, we have made mistakes with each other that have felt like betrayals. This happens in families. We have gotten so mad that we have ditched each other on the trail and shouted to each other’s back, “Don’t you dare walk away from me.” Actually, that was only me. We take breaks, make up.

By the third lap, my hip has begun coughing quietly to get my attention. It would like to go home now. My vision is even more blurry because of the drizzle and thin light, added to the dry eyes. This is part of what it means for me to be alive still, the blinky vision. Paradoxically, I see more. Now, instead of sharp focus, there’s an appreciation of shifts in light that reveal the mutability of the world. The light sometimes changes minute by minute, and with it we perceive changes in the energy around us, above us, inside us. It moves our attention outside our squinty, judgy little selves.

We point out dark-eyed Oregon juncos to each other and finches, the males with their glorious red headdresses and chests, the females in their faded brown bathrobes. We talk about spiritual things and people we hate — as she puts it, “people we’re allergic to, bless their hearts.’” We talk about our scattered minds: This morning, I was struggling to read some tiny print in a book, and, without thinking, I touched the printed page to pinch it out and make it bigger. Eeesh, I thought: Scary! But I was gentle with myself about it.

My hip has really begun to ache by the final lap. We talk and limp along. Easily half of the people in our conversations have passed on, all four parents, both of her younger siblings, dearest friends. We know that death won’t be so hard. We’ve seen many people through the end of life. It’s never dramatic, like Snagglepuss staggering around onstage clutching his throat. It can be rough, and then one slips over gently to whatever awaits. My old pastor told me it is like going to bed on the living room floor and waking up in your own bed.

Age is giving me the two best gifts: softness and illumination. It would have been nice if whoever is in charge of such things doled them out in our younger years, but that’s not how it works. Age ferries them across the water, and they will bring us through whatever comes.

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Between February 27th and March 17th, search West Linn's best hidden places to find Lucky's hiding spots! 

Turn in your completed Hide & Go Seek booklet to City Hall by March 17th at 3pm to be entered into a raffle! Booklets available online, outside of City Hall or at select park kiosks beginning February 27.  Open to all ages!

https://westlinnoregon.gov/parksrec/lucky-leprechaun-hide-seek
 

                                     
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Book Giveaway 3/1

Celebrate the 20th annual Lake Oswego Reads!

Bring your Lake Oswego Public Library card or number (and your friend's card if picking up multiple books) to receive a free copy of Tilt by Emma Pattee. 875 free books will be distributed to Lake Oswego Public Library cardholders, thanks to the ongoing support of the Friends of the Lake Oswego Library. Books will be distributed through our parking lot starting at 1pm. Please do not line up beforehand. Walk up service will also be available starting at 1pm.

For more information, please contact Nancy Niland at nniland@lakeoswego.city(link sends e-mail)
 

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West Linn Public Library  https://westlinnoregon.gov/library/adult-programs
How To Write Your Own Obituary

Monday, March 16, 5:00pm

Writing your own obituary is an opportunity to reflect on your life, your accomplishments (and foibles!), your passions, your quirks. What do you think people love about you? What do you want this world to remember about you? It’s a tough assignment for sure, but why not start a working document that you can edit through the years? Your family will thank you for it. Join us for a presentation that focuses on your personal legacy. Led by Jamie Passaro, a Eugene writer and editor who runs dear person obits, this workshop will help you prepare a thoughtful, well-written obit. Participants will walk away with a start to their obituaries and a pdf of Jamie’s 27-page booklet on obit writing and a free spot on Elegy.us, a website that features memorial tributes with words and photos. This is a virtual program that will take place on Zoom. Click here (https://calendly.com/wlpl-adult-services/obituary?month=2026-03) to register and receive the Zoom link.

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Protest in America

Join an in-depth conversation about the history of protest movements in the United States. Explore how civic engagement and social activism have shaped democratic change.

About the Instructor:
Dr. Schechter is a historian specializing in public history, civil rights, and social justice movements.

Instructor Websites:

• https://www.pdx.edu/profile/patricia-schechter(link is external)
• https://www.oah.org/lectures/lecturers/patricia-schechter/(link is external)

• Location: LO Adult Community Center
• Cost: Free for all participants
• Registration Required: Call (503) 635-3758
• Early registration is encouraged due to limited seating.

Senior Scholar Course ID: 32604 – Free

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EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS:
Are You Two-Weeks Ready?
By
Terence M. Shumaker
shufly46@comcast.net
 

• Family and home
• Neighborhood
• Community

1. Preparing to prepare
2. Your emergency plan
3. Food plan
4. Water plan
5. Waste and hygiene plan
6. Shelter plan
7. First aid plan
8. Emergency management

I suggest visiting that website, and on your initial visit just scroll down to the “Build Preparedess: the Be 2 Weeks Ready tool kit”. You’ll see the list shown above. Each mini plan in that list provides the unit overview, such as the “Unit 3: Food Plan” shown in the Fig. 1A below. First pick “Available Versions” to the right of “Unit 3”, then pick English, if that’s your preferred language. What pops up are the guidelines for implementing that specific plan. But that may seem intimidating at first, so I suggest finding the “Activities XX – XX” label, shown in Fig. 1B and click on “Available Versions”, then pick your language.

Fig. 2

This oven construction is an exercise in constructive creativity, science and emergency preparedness. An additional benefit of this activity, especially if you have grandkids under the influence of digits, is that you can put the pizza in the oven while they build another oven. Pizza is the reward for production. 

Anyway, getting back to the logic of this program, I hope you can see that an excellent approach to emergency preparedness is to engage in some activities that assist you in evaluating your current ideas, preconceptions, skills and possessions. This can this assist you in preparing specific items in your emergency preparedness plan.

Once you and/or family and friends have completed the activities, you can then move on to implementing the plan in a calm and logical manner. This is where you return to the “Unit 3” module, and using the information and knowledge you gained from doing the activities, begin to methodically create your plan for that topic.

The most important thing to remember, and this is stated in the Be 2 Weeks Ready program information, is to progress one step at a time and slowly develop your plan. This will assist you in building confidence in your preparation for the next emergency. The entire Be 2 Weeks Ready program can be downloaded in pdf format here.

In closing, please refer to last month’s column for links to sites that provide many of the products you may need to begin your emergency preparedness planning.
 
NOTE
On the subject of recycling, please check out the revised pickup schedule below. Our next pickup is March 10, and every other month afterwards.
 
ITEMS FOR OUR NEXT RECYCLING COLLECTION
March 10 is our next recycling team pickup, and we’ll be collecting building materials, tools, plumbing and lighting fixtures, fasteners etc. If you have an item that you think Rebuilding Center would take, please contact them to confirm.  See below.
 
WLLO RECYCLING COLLECTION SCHEDULE
Remember, we pick up plastic film, (no crinkly plastic film), and all clean clear #1 PET and PETE plastics. Please, no black or colored #1 plastic.
 
If you have a question about something you want to recycle, and it’s something your WLLO Recycle Team picks up, please contact the appropriate recipient given below. Their list of items they accept change regularly. Thanks for your help.

PLEASE REMEMBER: We can no longer accept #6 PS or Styrofoam plastics.

March 10: Building materials, tools, plumbing and lighting fixtures, fasteners etc. The Rebuilding Center breathes new life into these items. To confirm if they currently accept items for donation, please call 503-331-1877. https://www.rebuildingcenter.org/donations

May 12: Cleaners, pesticides, chemicals, light bulbs, smoke alarms, paint, batteries and other hazardous materials. Metro South Hazardous Waste site reclaims and recycles.
https://www.oregonmetro.gov/tools-living/garbage-and-recycling/garbage-recycling-hazardous-waste-disposal-oregon-city

July 14: Electronics and everything with a power cord. PLEASE: NO LIGHT BULBS OR SMOKE DETECTORS! But LED light bulbs are ok! Free Geek rehabilitates and recycles this stuff. Please wrap up cords and cables and secure with a twist tie or rubber band.
https://www.freegeek.org/take-action/donate-technology

September 8: Furniture, linens, dishes (no chips or cracks or alcohol-themed items), kitchen utensils, mattresses/box springs, small appliances (in working condition), decorative items and artwork, rugs etc. Items are donated to the Community Warehouse. https://www.communitywarehouse.org/give-furniture/