A man ate all the right foods, drink plenty of water, didn't smoke or drink booze, got plenty of exercise, took daily vitamins, practice abstinence for fear of STDs, wore a mask every time a new virus threatened the world, wore his seat belt, stepped out onto a crosswalk and was hit by a speeding bus. Immortality is an illusion. -NK
The older I get the more mortality rears it's ugly head. I am constantly reminded of this as I crawl out of bed, back aching, feet sore. Forgotten responsibilities loom overhead, my health slipping out from under my feet quicker and quicker every day.
When you prefer a nap over sex or put a spoon full of fiber supplement into your morning coffee to gets things moving you know that things are changing and not for the better. I'm getting old. We all are. It is inevitable but that doesn't make it easy. Perhaps I'm aging too quick. I'm only 33 years old after all. Maybe it's not too late to be healthy and happy again. I can only hope.
But to what extent should I take this? How much pain and misery am I willing to endure to be healthy? How much of my precious time am I willing to give up to do unpleasant things to make me young again? Will I be the man and the bus? Is my fate fixed? Should I just throw caution to the wind and live my life to the fullest? I don't know. I don't have any answers.
I guess I will leave you with a question: How true is this statement? "If you haven't got your health you haven't got anything." Maybe I got Jesus, maybe I got stories to tell, maybe I got kids, grand kids, maybe I have a cause? Maybe, just maybe, I have the appreciation of the gift of life, a chance to experience this world before moving on to the next and maybe that is enough?
-NK
I guess it depends on what's unhealthy about you and how much of an inconvenience it is.
ReplyDeleteI would recommend this: be responsible - ie: don't get into debt on things that can't be used as collateral. Spend wisely but well. Give up the lattes for a vacation somewhere exotic. Do brown bag lunch so you can splurge on a great meal. Invite friends in even if the house is disaster. Be generous. Realize that when retirement comes, you may not be healthy or alive enough to enjoy it.
Small steps over time lead to big changes. Do something, even a small something to improve your health each week. By the end of the year you will have ended up doing a lot.
ReplyDeleteAwesome comments. I think the next logical stage of my discussion, had it continued, would have been 'embracing healthy living for quality of life and the hope of quantity'. That's one of the lessons I'm learning the older I get. In my younger years I threw caution to the wind to live on the edge. I got unhealthy and in debt and made a bad name for myself. Now that I'm married I have been paying for those mistakes. -NK
ReplyDelete