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Health & Fitness

Reflections

 

 

 

Reflections.

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I’m sitting on my porch. The time is 8 o’clock in the evening. With the time change darkness is approaching. The sky is a pale tone of cerulean with cumulus clouds scudding above. I watch a jet heading north. I see the contrail of a jet at 50 thousand feet going into the sunset. I hear total silence. A Red-tailed hawk, riding a thermal, surveys the neighborhood, searching for its dinner. Finches mantle a feeder. A wren checks out a gourd for occupancy. A squirrel chatters.

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A faint breeze tousles my hair. I sit in awe of what I can see. I am at peace.

 

Over the past six weeks my wife and I both had been recovering from problems we encountered associated with becoming old; mine, a stroke at age 86 and hers, hassling with some malady. We have been puny, concerned about our conditions, becoming more aware of aging.

 

I put my feet up on a railing and close my eyes, reflecting on my past and pondering our future.

Our marriage had been fulfilling for both of us. I was so lucky to have married an angel.

 

My life has sometimes been hampered by problems over which I had no control but on the other hand were the experiences that made my life so satisfying; great children with whom we remain associated, canoeing rogue rivers, climbing Mount Shasta, playing Augusta National golf course, visiting on Indian reservations, herding the cows for milking, surviving WW II, unscathed, being the premier furrier in Atlanta, writing novels, freelancing for the AJC, and others.

 

During my recent physical, when my doctor commented that I had outlived my life expectancy, I smiled, but suddenly realized my life could be figured in possibly months instead of years. It was a time to redress my naïve optimism.

 

I have completed the nuisance jobs that had been ignored and I have put little stickers on some of my stuff indicating its value; fishing tackle, guns, shop tools. I checked the Blue Book for a price on my car. The lawn is mowed and the shrubbery trimmed. I learned the Boy Scout motto when I was a kid; Be Prepared. I am now a realist, I realize life is ephemeral.

 

There are several wishes yet to be fulfilled; a hole-in-one on the 12th at Augusta, a world record bass, a Pulitzer prize, to climb one more mountain, to visit Machu Picchu and the Great Wall of China, a flight off a carrier deck in an F-16, winning the lottery, a bungee-jump on the Colorado river, maybe another powwow with the Nez Perce Indians in the Bitterroot Mountains. None of these will likely happen. Frailties have intruded and my priorities have changed.

 

I glance at my angel and pray I go first to avoid ambling aimlessly around in a house gone silent.  I go back to appreciating nature and contemplating infinity. A lizard sits on my railing watching me savor my remaining life, each moment reducing my time on earth. Sioux2222@gmail.com

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