Aging

I am of the nature to grow old, I cannot avoid aging.

Buddha

I feel it more each day, the creaks and groans that emanate from various regions of my body. Injuries and insults I have hurled at myself linger long past the time when inflicted. The morning brings stiffness that demands conscious effort to loosen.

The realization that aging is an intrinsic part of life provokes feelings of sadness; this knowledge gives me the ability to take action, providing the foresight to know that I need to keep living and enjoying the privilege of a mobile and healthy body. I can appreciate the phases my body will go through during this journey with the understanding that each step is just as beautiful as the changing light of the sun as it makes its arc across the sky from dawn and into twilight.

Because the decay of this body is inevitable does not mean I should sit back and wring my hands in anguish. Though the aging process will continue unabated, I can be a part of deciding how it will progress. If I treat my body with kindness and care, it will respond. If I have high expectations of what it can do, it will rise to meet them, despite its protestations. As I surrender to aging I will do it not as a defeated warrior with my head bowed in shame, but as a lover engaged in a heartfelt embrace with bittersweet tears streaming down my face.

First draft originally written 3.30.14