When Death Creeps Close

When someone near to you dies you do go through grief and shock but as you move up in years you think about other things. You grasp for a reason why someone your own age just passed away. 

Mortality smacks you in the face. 

This year I lost both a good friend and relative. The friend smoked for years and it was those nasty cigarettes that finally did her in. She was 65. Bright, vibrant and taken too soon. The relative had health problems she didn't share. (Younger by a few years) That was more of a shock due to the fact we thought everything was alright. 

It wasn't. But her passing was still a shock even to those who knew she had health problems.

When you're 20 or 30 and someone your age passes away it's always a shock but not something that makes you question your own health and lifestyle. 

Then you hit 60 and your perspective is skewed in the "could that have been me?" zone. You start to question that twinge in your chest, the cramp in your calf, and that forgetfulness.  

I think we have to double check everything. Make sure your meds (yes there are two to date) are good and go back to exercising regularly. Throughout the years exercise has come and gone and come back again. In my 20's I was hard core, then came kids and it got sporadic, then through the years it came and went. One thing stays constant? It does make you feel better. Jars are easier to open, boxes lift with less strain, your back thanks you, and squatting down doesn't mean you're stuck down there until someone gives you a lift. 

So to those who have passed I send my prayers, to those who are suffering I send hope that their health takes a turn for the better. 

For me? I need to clean out the spare room and get some weights. A few weeks ago I got a dog so the cardio is on the uptick. Dogs need walks and living where winter never drops below 60 degrees makes walking easy and enjoyable. 

Tomorrow I attack the pile of boxes in the spare room to make space for exercise. Yeah! 

Aging & Changes over 60

Some days I forget how old I am.
Other days it's the little things that hit back to remind me. Some small like that bright white hair in my normally brown eyebrows. Other's are bigger like the creeping arthritis I know is hitting the joints in my hands.

When I first started seeing the little white hairs replacing brown ones in my eye brows I just plucked them out. Bye, bye, all gone!  However I reached the point where it's either live with those pesky little white hairs or have a big bald line where my eye brows used to be. (Insert sigh of resignation here)

I've seen the older people with the enlarged knuckles. Their joints are stiffer, swollen. I'm not there yet but that little pinky on my right hand seems to have stiffened up a bit. Maybe the joint is a bit larger? Ugh!

So, I take my vitamins, walk the dog and think I need to put some weight lifting on my itinerary. They say lifting weights keeps the bones strong and makes you safer from injury.

I tore my rotator cuff years ago and met this little old doctor who treated my after care. He said to make sure to take calcium. He had fallen on an icy step and went down hard. He said the only reason he didn't break anything, as old an as frail as he was- he should have, was because he took calcium every day.

I take B12, too. B12 rules the nervous system and that affects everything in the body. Add D to that because blood work says I'm deficient and I'm rounding out my vitamins with something called Hair, Skin & Nails.

Getting old doesn't mean we no longer pursue health as vapidly as we did in our 20's. I think sometimes we forget to keep all these healthy habits in the front of our aging toolbox.