SHEsaysWITHaSMILE.blogspot.com

 

 11 Corinthians 4:16

Therefore we do not become discouraged (utterly spiritless, exhausted and wearied out through fear). Though our outer man is [progressively] decaying and wasting away, yet our inner self is being [progressively] renewed day after day.

It is of great fascination to (me!); the process of aging for flesh vs. spirit.   -how, physically, each decade (given you live a long life), your appearance and abilities incrementally diminish, and how, simultaneously, spiritually, each decade (given you live a good long life), your understandings and freedoms incrementally increase.

and i have a theory, that as your flesh/physical being decays, it releases spiritual vapors in an ongoing way..

these are invisible to the human eye; but entirely experiential. 

your essence is love.    you were made from it; born with it; to experience and to share

lives properly and well lived, in my experience and observation, are ones where you are perpetually identifying and releasing anything and everything that is contrary to love..        

shedding and releasing..

until that is all that is left; pure love.

and i love where i'm at, spiritually, speaking..

physically, however..   when it comes to my flesh

the thing i seem to be doing perpetually, is noticing, and then grieving what wonderful things youth provided that aging seems to steal..

the elasticity of my skin!   when i am putting on eye make-up, and the applicator shifts my skin..  it just stays there and creates a new layer of wrinkle  -in no hurry at all to get back where it once belonged..

my teeth stain easier and require more attention..   my lips are thinner...

and i do remember laughing   -and laughing pretty hard, the first time i read Dr Maya Angelou describing her breast as she aged, 'as if they are racing to see which one can get to my hips the fastest'

but that was over a decade ago.  any laughter i can muster at the sight of my own naked body, is forced. /but i do make the effort.    and not with a current budget for head to toe plastic surgery, i have just started wearing a bra, day and night..   night and day...    if you wont get back up here on your own.. i'll have to force you

and there is a longer list..   and i go back and forth between grieving and acceptance, and day-dreams about plastic surgeries..

all the while aware, (and grateful) none of it matters in heaven.

the two physical activities i've been most surprised to learn i can do; and can't wait to do again and throughout 2023:    1.  bike ride in monterey, from el estero park to pebble beach for lunch, and then back.     2. climbing to mission peak in fremont.     /and i have already planned out, on our next hike to mission peak..  upon return, we will head directly to eataly for their rustic bread with real butter and a glass of red wine

i think, by doing what you can do, physically speaking, when you can actually do it..  you proactively prevent the regrets that might surface when you can no longer do something, and realize you missed (or passed up) the opportunity when you could have..     in short: do what you can; while you can

-skip a step running up 5 flights of stairs,  before you need handrails and another person helping you to navigate a couple steps.

Praise God!  Hallelujah & Amen