A different way to be in life
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A different way to be in life
In my eighties, do I have lines on my face? Has the once firm jaw developed jowls? Are there wrinkles around my neck and do I have crepey arms? Has my bosom (and bottom) headed south? Do the veins on my legs stand out, marring the smoothness? And wrinkled hands? Oh, my word yes. Everything is less firm than it was, the bloom of youth long gone.
When I see that smooth youthful body on another, do I envy those days when I, too, was the same?
NO. I rejoice in how they look appreciating the youthful beauty of their form. Would you want to be a baby again? We learn, grow, our bodies become, as a dear friend once said, ’a map of all our experiences’. I experienced that youthful bloom, revelled in it, but did not fully appreciate it. So now I do when I see that youthful bloom in others. It’s all part of the cycle of where we are in our lives.
I rejoice too in this body that I was born into, given to love and nurture. I rejoice in its functions, its delicacy, its wholeness. I rejoice in how one part of it works in symbiotic harmony with all of the rest of it to produce movement; and how some movements, once so easy that they came with no effort, now come with a gentle reminder.
There are things that I know I can still do (decorating, DIY etc) but choose not to, as I recognise more and more the precious delicacy of the body as it ages. It’s simple really. I have learned to listen to my body. The back injury sustained by a disregarding movement; generally, less flexibility; my body remembers these things, reminds me to be careful and sometimes says ‘Don’t do that’ - very loudly.
I can now contemplate a task that needs to be done without thinking I have to do it on my own. There is no embarrassment with getting support.
The freedom that comes with those choices, the letting go of any idea that anything should be done in a particular way is a delight. I no longer ‘have’ to do anything. Nor am I constricted by how society deems I should behave. I have seen enough of life to reject the trappings of correctness. And I use the word trappings deliberately, because it is just that. We are trapped, constrained into certain behaviours, ways of dressing, eating, socialising, living. That is all gone now.
So, am I left with nothing but making a will (I did that years ago) and then waiting for the total deterioration that many view as the inevitable end of life? A BIG FAT NO!
I still work – two jobs at the moment. I love to walk. I enjoy tending to my garden. I go out and socialise, and I see every day, every moment as an opportunity - of what I have no idea, but Heaven offers them all the time.
Looking back on my life I could be asked
‘What was your best time? When life was at its most glorious?’
The answer is easy. It is now.
Filed under
Ageing, Elders, Optics, Vitality
