Hmmm, what will your book look like when you reach the point of having more days behind you than ahead of you?
Age is only a state of mind. I do not know who came up with that statement but I suspect that he or she was not old at the time. I used to believe it was a truism. But now that I have reached my late 60’s, it does not ring quite as true as it once did.
In the biblical times of Moses and Abraham, a person could live 900 years or more. Old age had an entirely different meaning in those days. I consider that now and think: Holy crap, the last 800 years must have been a total shit show!
I admittedly have not given as much attention as I probably should have to taking proper care of my body. I have always remained physically active of my own accord. But it took medical issues a number of years back to slap me in the face and get me to adopt a healthier diet. Healthier, of course, is a relative term subject to a wide range of interpretation.
As many of us do, I have a couple of chronic health conditions. A chronic back problem – Degenerative Disc Disease, if you care to know the clinical diagnosis – which I refer to as the bane of my existence. I also have period digestive system issues. Both can escalate to serious and debilitating without warning. Actively managing them is both a challenge and a stressor.
Age does bring with it a degree of wisdom. But it is all too often retrospective in nature. If only I knew then, what I know now, I would have done things differently. Oh, to have had a crystal ball back then to foresee how my bad habits – which we all have, being human after all – would come back to haunt me.
We all look forward to reaching 65 (or 55 or 60 if you are one of the fortunate ones with the financial means to pack it in early), retiring and being able to do the things we want to do rather than the things we have to do. But along the way some of us overlooked the caveat that comes with reaching that state: Freedom tomorrow requires discipline today.
Of course, not everything that impacts our ability to age gracefully is within our control. Genetic factors and environmental factors in the world around us play a role. One need look no further than the wild fires, that now rage in the northern regions of Canada every summer, which send smoke our way making the air hazardous to breath.
We all know a person who modeled healthy living and yet was felled by an unexpected heart attack or a cancer diagnosis. It is a balance of living right, a bit of luck and steering clear as best we can of those things that can undermine our body’s resilience. In the complicated and stressful society in which we live, that is easier said than done.
At the end of the day (pardon the pun), the goal is to become a well worn book – showing the richness of life and the wisdom gained without the spine becoming so worn that the pages are falling out. There is a sweet spot in there somewhere that we need to find.
~ Now Available Online from Amazon, Chapters Indigo or Barnes & Noble: Hunting Muskie, Rites of Passage – Stories by Michael Robert Dyet
~ Michael Robert Dyet is also the author of Until the Deep Water Stills – An Internet-enhanced Novel (now out of print) which was a double winner in the Reader Views Literary Awards 2009. Visit Michael’s website at www.mdyetmetaphor.com .
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