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Aging and Adaptation
As we age, so much has changed in the world. What we once considered normal has been replaced by a world that is often beyond our understanding. Certainly, life goes on. Our grandchildren talk about their games as though they are the only reality, and we look at them with a jaundiced eye, thinking: “What are they talking about?” I am certain they look at us with the same opinion.
If we live long enough, our bodies become frailer and more subject to whatever malady comes our way. We remember being able to walk for long periods of time, enjoying the outdoors and activities that pleasure us. Then we could bend down easily as we work with our flowers or do yardwork with vim and vigor. Well, that is no longer true. We must adapt to what our bodies will let us do so that we do not injure ourselves. I personally must go fetch a store person to get items on the lower or upper shelf.
As for maladies, we have to watch our bodies carefully so we can pay attention to when they need a little assistance to keep on going. Our doctors help us with medicines, physical therapy, and sometimes surgeries. I, for one, am grateful for their assistance because I remember my father passing away at the young age of 43 from complications from a duodenal ulcer surgery. The miracles of this age we are living in constantly amaze me because there are new medicines, surgeries, and new techniques, i.e., removing the appendix through a small hole in the side in lieu of cutting one open.
Life does indeed go on if we are lucky. I personally have experienced friends and relatives who have passed away at a much younger age than I. Grief is a hard thing to bear. It can be formidable. It can involve so many different emotions and takes such a long time to work through. Memories offer some solace, as does knowing that person is in a better place or is no longer in pain.
Aging can be a blessing, if we let it be that. We can exercise, do yoga, deep breathing, and whatever activity adds joy to our lives such as luncheon with friends, listening to good music or reading a good book. We can take classes in so many subjects. The Great Courses offer home learning at an affordable price so we can read the book that comes with the class and play the DVD at our pace of learning. There is always the availability of classes in our local colleges, churches, and Community Centers. There are many social events like cards, Bingo, and group activities to feed our socialization needs.
Adaptation to our needs is a requirement and a necessity. We no longer have the option of thinking that things will stay the same. That is so far from the truth. Our children and their children live in a different world than we can understand. We are forced to reach out into their world so we can communicate effectively, show them love in a way they can accept, and help them to learn to adapt to circumstances as we have had to do.
Life continues, and so should we. Wherever we are, we can still think positively, act appropriately, and always love others the best we can. Are you able to do that? It is a matter of choices, after all. Are you willing?
God’s blessings on your journey!
Savor the Flavor of Life
In the movie”Shogun,” an actor (Yabu) says, “Life is just the single beat of a butterfly’s wings!”
From an observer perspective, that is a very true statement.
You got to make the morning last
Just kicking down the cobble stones
Looking for fun and feelin’ groovy
I’ve come to watch your flowers growing
Ain’t cha got no rhymes for me?
Doot-in’ doo-doo, feelin’ groovy
I’m dappled and drowsy and ready to sleep
Let the morning time drop all its petals on me
Life, I love you, all is groovy”
The popularity of fast food outlets speaks to how fast we are moving. As one eats on the run, gobbling up whatever food that has been chosen, did you savor the taste of it? Did you enjoy the scent of the apple before you bit into it? Have you heard a song so soothing that it stopped you in your tracks to listen to it? Or perhaps it had a beat that made you want to dance?
If you are healthy, did you thank God for how well your body is working? If you are not, did you know in your heart that you would soon experience being full of vitality again. Perhaps you are recovering from surgery or a health issue. Do you ever stop to smell a flower or listen to a child’s laugh? What is your focus? So many times, ill health makes one’s mind turn in. The only discussion possible is how badly things are going with you.
Life goes on all around us. Yet in our urge to hurry, the point of haste is forgotten. The difference is addressed in The Majesty of Calmness by William George Jordan, written in 1898. “Nature is very un-American. Nature never hurries. Every phase of her working shows plan, calmness, reliability, and the absence of hurry. Hurry always implies lack of definite method, confusion, impatience of slow growth. The Tower of Babel, the world’s first skyscraper, was a failure because of hurry. The workers mistook their arrogant ambition for inspiration. They had too many builders, – and no architect. They thought to make up the lack of a head by a superfluity of hands. This is characteristic of Hurry. It seeks ever to make energy a substitute for a clearly defined plan, – the result is ever as hopeless as trying to transform a hobbyhorse into a real steed by brisk riding. Hurry is a counterfeit of haste. Haste has an ideal, a distinct aim to be realized by the quickest, direct methods. Haste has a single compass upon which it relies for direction and in harmony with which its course is determined. Hurry says: ‘I must move faster. I will get three compasses; I will have them different; I will be guided by all of them. One of them will probably be right.’ Hurry never realizes that slow careful foundation work is the quickest in the end. Hurry has ruined more Americans than has any other word in the vocabulary of life. It is the scourge of America; and is both a cause and a result of our high-pressure civilization.”
I have asked myself what the author would make out of our world today, 120 years later? So the idea of “slow down, you move too fast” has greater meaning to us now than it ever has! Hurry has expanded to almost everywhere on the globe as well. Very few places are exempt from it.
You see cell phones and every other electronic technology in action everywhere. The use of these has increased our efficiency and saved us so much time. But how is that saved time being spent? Are you moving slower or faster?
If, indeed, “Life is just the single beat of a butterfly’s wings!” – perhaps one can choose to slow down just a bit, use Haste instead of Hurry, and use your five senses to experience and savor the flavor of your life. It is your choice. What will it be?
God’s blessings upon your journey!
upliftingthoughts4u 