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I am turning 65 soon and am really getting rudely tuned in lately to my mortality by degenerative conditions that threaten my mobility and independence and general health. I’ve always forged my own path and been physically strong. Suddenly I am draining financial investments instead of growing them, and measuring out my remaining years against them. Am I really going to have to leave my little house one day? HOW DID THIS HAPPEN? Lol.
Yes, brisk exercise and closer attention to diet certainly do help. Cohorts at the dog park share stories of aches and pains and we support each other. Although there is now a note of grimness behind our miles-long daily walks, there is indeed also humour and mutual support and gratitude for what we still can do. You really do have to appreciate your own good fortune and help someone worse off. I mean, there’s no going back, is there.
(Is there?)
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@robertaeh
To age about 44 we are expanding. After that, the contraction begins.- s l o w l y. One day it hits us - this is downhill. I didn't sign up for this. In the west, we try going backwards to reclaim our youth. Plastic surgery, hair plugs, supplements , every snake oil potion on line. It doesn't work. We should be in the chronological place we are. Think and behave accordingly. It's actually easier. King Solomon said something like " The day of your death is better than the day of your birth, because on the day of your death, you now know what your life was, and what Life is."
Bill Murray said this in Caddy Shack describing his encounter with the Dalai Lama.
I never could accept the end of things: summer, family gatherings, camp, junking an old car that I drove for years, my girlfriend.
Then Leonard Cohen did "Closing Time." Someone finally taught me that THINGS END. Get used to it!
If you don't want things to end, don't get them started. Zen Buddhism: Only the unborn are the undying.
We have Life/Death. Can't escape it. Instead of agonizing over the existential issue, WHAT DO YOU WANT TO DO (with your gift of Life) IN BETWEEN the two.
I still have a hard time hearing the song The Party's Over.❤️