STEADY AS SHE GOES

Navigating the aging process

It comes to us all, we get older every day. Some milestones are behind us, some that we never expected lie ahead. We learned to walk through a series of missteps and falls. Some of us enter our 70’s and 80’s the same way.

Fair warning: this is not a post about overcoming the effects of aging, as so many have already been written and you know about the 80 year-old who decided to walk the Appalachian Trail and triumphed. Or the 70 year-old who took up water skiing or ballet or line dancing, and won all the awards. This is a personal post, from me to you, about some of the bumps and bruises I have experienced getting older.

Control, especially over my body, has always been something I could count on. But as time passes, I have less and less. Out of necessity I have given up some to my medical providers who give me medications to deal with one challenge or another. I am about to undergo knee replacement surgery, and will face another in the next year. A lovely young man comes to provide physical therapy as I prepare for these events, and I am grateful. I am also exhausted when he leaves, even though we don’t do very strenuous excercise. The medications I take sometimes make me feel off-kilter, and now that I am trying to adapt to hearing aids, there is more of that. Every day is a challenge for this 83 year-old body and mind.

From what my daughter tells me about her preschoolers, I think I am exhibiting signs of sensory challenge and often overload. I am told my brain needs to adapt to my new hearing aids, my new glasses. And I already know my mind has to adapt to physical abilities that change without warning. Learning to walk with a cane isn’t easy. Especially if you are really out and about with other people who are bustling here and there without a thought to staying upright and on balance. I was leaving a restaurant the other day, with my cane, slowly moving down the narrow aisle, when a young woman came hurrying towards me, clutching packages, rushing to the restroom. She did not step aside, I had to do that. I don’t think she noticed I was there at all. Invisibility is another big challenge.

Are you with me, reader? Any of you out there having the same experiences? It’s a daily challenge, don’t you think? Some mornings I wake up feeling pretty good, and even though it takes me longer than it used to, I eventually proceed with my day. Other days I wake up feeling out of balance, tired, a new pain here or there, and creep along through breakfast and daily routines.

My goals for each day are adaptability and acceptance. Adapt my pursuits to those that are realistic and bring me comfort, a sense of accomplishment, or joy. Any one of those work. Acceptance of my limitations and recognition of them before they knock me over or knock me out is essential, too. That one I’m still working hard to achieve.

I know there are others who face far more serious challenges than I. And yes, I am grateful for the abilities I still have, even though they often make me cranky and snappish. I want you to know, though, if you are working through these later years and finding them challenging, I see you. I hear you. And I applaud you all for whatever you are doing to steer and stay the course. Steady as she goes!