Up and At 'Em

Next year I'll be sixty years old, and while I have no objection to the number per se, what I do object to are those mornings when I feel every bit of that age and more. I long to wake up and jump out of bed like I used to do, ache-free and ready to make the new day my own. Instead, I wake up, carefully maneuver myself to the edge of the mattress, use my right arm to push myself to a sitting position, and slowly raise the old creakers into an upright stance. Et voila! Bed exited. Mission accomplished.

Some days my aging chassis bothers me more than others, and this happens to be one of them. Happily, most mornings I simply take it as a matter of course, scarcely noticing the changes or at least having a sense of humor about them. Either way, once I get up and moving, the whole situation tends to improve dramatically. By nightfall, I am almost spry.

There's a lesson to be learned here, and I am determined to learn it. (What good is getting older if you can't get wiser, right?) And what good is allowing those circumstances in life that are beyond our control to call the shots when it comes to our happiness? At the end of the day, the outcome will be as good as any given person decides to make it...by putting one foot in front of the other and remembering what Abe Lincoln said, that "most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be."

A number of people might find such an attitude a bit cavalier or insensitive, too simplistic in its disregard for the very real sorrows and struggles people experience, but I don't think so. Mr. Lincoln suffered from severe depression himself, but he knew Seneca was right in saying that "a man is as miserable as he thinks he is." As Holbrook Jackson observed, "happiness is a form of courage," and pointing out the opportunity for choice does not invalidate a person's struggle, but ennobles and empowers it.

Perhaps Werner Erhard and Mary Engelbreit got it right: "Happiness is a function of accepting what is" (Ehrhard) and "changing the way you think about it" (Engelbreit), but I think the apostle Paul said it best of all: "I have learned, in whatsoever state I am in, therewith to be content. I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: everywhere and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ, which strengtheneth me" (Philippians 4:12-13).

Enough said. I've talked myself around. Up and at 'em, Sue. And make it a good one!

=)