We’re all getting older whether we like it or not. Every day brings us one step closer to death. I know that sounds morbid, but it’s the truth. Reality is, our date of birth is actually the day we start dying. That’s why every single day should be considered a gift. A chance to experience life to its fullest. Every morning when we open our eyes, we are given the gift of another day. Another step toward the grave. Another opportunity to do good, to embrace the blessings around us, and to boldly walk toward the pearly gates.
Now, I’m not trying to create a downer post. Quite the opposite. I’m trying to impress upon you dear readers, how special every single day is. Sure, as we age our bodies change. Stuff gets harder to do. Our memory gets a little fuzzy. We lose strength, stamina, elasticity. It happens. It’s part of the dying process. It’s okay. We’ve lived to take the next step in our journey. Yay us!
But, that’s why it’s so important to live every single day to its fullest. Enjoy the things you can. Push through that annoying knee pain because tomorrow it might be worse. Do it today while you can, when you’ve been afforded the opportunity to avoid the the grim reaper. Don’t wait, tomorrow you might not be so lucky.
Don’t you find it interesting that one morning you wake up and discover a pain in your elbow that wasn’t there yesterday and shouldn’t be there at all because you didn’t injure yourself? Feet hurt at the end of the day today when they’ve never hurt at the end of any other day. Hands go numb for no reason. You can’t bend over and pick something up off the floor without stooping a little. That all happens because we’re dying. Random, weird aches and pains remind us that we’re alive and we’ve advanced another day toward death. Yay us! Keep going. Keep on dying.
Remember when you used to make fun of your parents, grandparents, old people because they had to “take their pills?” They had to have milk, food, whatever because they needed to “take it with their medicine.” Remember those days? Yeah. I’m there. I’m now a full-fledged pill-taker. My thyroid decided to quit working. It’s on the fritz because I’m dying. Ergo, the thyroid pills. Blood pressure not where it’s supposed to be? That’s because we’re moving closer to death. No worries though, just take your blood pressure medicine and live another day.
I don’t know about you guys, but I’ll take another step toward death every single day if I’ve given the opportunity. I wake up, acknowledge the gift of life and haul my tired, achy body out of that bed, take my pills, and proceed to live. Sure, stuff hurts now. Sure, I can’t touch my toes anymore. Sure, I forget where I put my glasses now. But sure enough, I’m alive to talk about it. Another day towards death for the win!
How are you guys handling the aging process? Are you going down fighting? Are you coming to grips with the reality that you are now a pill-taker? Have you accepted the random weird aches and pains as a gift? This is a bizarre perspective, but if you’re always mindful and thankful, it doesn’t matter that every day we’re marching toward death. Just keep on marching. Yay us!
Word of the Day: Euphonium
Fun fact about me: I have a strange obsession with antique crystal lamps. I love those little sparkly jewel things that dangle down.
Original post by Jansen Schmidt, September 2020. Images by Pexels and giphy.com
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jansenschmidt 
Your title – so true! I fight aging to the extent that I can without it making my fatigue worse. I’m certainly a pill-taker, though mostly vitamins and supplements. I even have one of those weekly sorters that we all used to think were “only for old people.” Yeah, we’re the old people now LOL. Maybe time to take up the euphonium?
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Jennette, I’m usually exhausted by the end of every day now. I can’t imagine how much worse that must be for you. I used to be the Energizer bunny, running around, getting stuff done. Now, I’m thankful if I accomplish half of the stuff on my “to do” list. But, that’s okay. I managed to get all that stuff done!!! So, yay me.
Thanks for sharing. Keep on, keeping on. Life is good.
Patricia
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Yup, I always enjoy waking up and something hurts for no reason. I used to love tubing on the water, but tumbling out now freakin’ hurts! Kinda ruins the fun, but you’re absolutely right – every day of life is a gift, so don’t waste it!
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Oh man, I know what you mean. There are things that I can’t even imagine doing these days because I’m sure my knees would give out, my feet would cramp up, I’d lose my balance. It sucks. I’m still quite adventurous but usually, if something makes me hurt afterwards, I’ll check it off my “done that” list and move on to something else. No sense having a painful reminder of a “fun” time.
Life is weird isn’t it? I never imagine myself as an “old” person, yet, here I am.
Have a wonderful, hopefully pain-free week.
Patricia
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Boy, did you ever hit home with this post. Like everyone else, I’m giving dying my best effort. So much so that I wrote two short poems about the effort here: https://thecvillean.org/2019/02/20/the-joys-of-senior-living-a-poem/ and here:
https://thecvillean.org/2016/03/24/the-arthritis-shuffle-a-poem/. But I don’t think we were friends yet. I think they relate very closely to what you’re saying here.
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