Ripcord Grandma
by Alan Cohen


"Try to keep your soul young and quivering right up to old age, and to
imagine right up to the brink of death that life is only beginning."
—George Sand

When ninety-eight-year-old Hildegarde Ferrara’s friend offered to pay for
a skydive for Hildegarde’s next birthday, she was joking. When Hildegarde
answered, “I’d be delighted!’ she was not. The offer was right in line
with Hildegarde’s life of endless adventure. At the age of 93 she had her
naked body slathered with mud by the Mud Men of New Guinea, and was
flattered that one Mud Man offered five hundred pigs— ten times the going
rate —for her hand in marriage. She has dined with head-hunters, slept in
King Ludwig’s Neuschwanstein Castle, and savored termites and eggs for
breakfast. Her flare for individuality erupted in 1917 when she was
suspended from an all-girl Catholic High school for posing for a photo in
which she brazenly exposed her shoulders. There are only a few places on
earth Hildegarde has not visited, and she advises, “go out and see the
world before it’s too late.” Apparently for Hildegarde it’s never too late.

Hildegarde is not an exception to life, but an exemplar of its possibilities.
She has not fallen prey to the notion that age determines our abilities or
activities; she chooses to live from joy and life supports her to manifest
her dreams.

There is a Hildegarde in each of us. We may not desire to see all the world,
but we do yearn to be all that we can be. What have you been holding off
doing because you are too old, sick, poor, inexperienced, uneducated,
unqualified, tired, or unhappy? What if none of these conditions had any
power to stop you from being what you want to be?

What if, at this very moment, you could take action to mobilize the visions
you have had on the shelf? What would you do if I dared you to put down this
book right now and take a step toward one of your hidden dreams?

Now is the moment you have been waiting for. Live it to the fullest.

I pray to live my life in brilliant joy. Turn up my flame.

I can do anything I choose. I am unlimited. I am free.