Which Is It?

I was speaking to a guy at church who is about twenty years older than me. We were talking about various things and the topic of body pain came up. I told him what I was feeling at the time and he said somewhat lightheartedly, “yeah, that’s age”. He set my mind on overdrive with that statement. I’ll be 58 at the end of next month. With that said, I’m someone who remains fairly active physically. I exercise with weights and boxing equipment, walk several miles daily, and work with things around the house that involve a decent amount of physical effort. I remain in pretty good shape, although I am at a point in life where I can finish that statement with the words “for a guy my age”. Still...you know, active and all.

When this guy made the lighthearted comment, I began to evaluate what’s going on with my body. So yeah, I admit freely that I’m not as young as I used to be and my body, by nature of the aging process, is not what it once was. But… it’s too big of a coincidence that the soreness, pain, and fatigue all came home with me after my initial stay in the hospital after the accident. I mean, none of it was there before the accident. It’s been 7 ½ years now, and things are getting noticeably worse with my physical condition, but it’s only getting worse at the different locations on my body where the damage was done by the accident injuries.

I guess I should balance the fact that I am getting older with the fact that an enormous amount of damage was done to my body by the accident. The truth is that a majority of what I feel physically these days is due to the injuries sustained in the accident. It’s just something that I’ll have to endure throughout the rest of my life while also keeping in mind that maybe the aging process effects the human body…a little.

And still, I need to consciously avoid a time when I’ll sit at the front of my house and yell at kids to get off of my lawn.