Nearer and Nearer

            As each day swiftly slips into another, slowly, the realization that I am growing older becomes more intense. Waking up with painful joints, occasionally grunting when I bend over, and I get frustrated when I can’t think of a word I want to use or wonder why I went into another room are all symptoms of the imperfect body that I now reside inside. My tonsils were removed when I was five years old, and I have worn eyeglasses since I was in second grade, so the inkling that parts of me didn’t function correctly was already with me. They were just never as pronounced or “in my face.”  Over the years, it has been more obvious.

            Surgeries for carpal tunnel and a pilonidal cyst were unwelcome reminders of frailties of my mortal flesh. Slowly, time has marked the the scorecard in its favor. Cuts, bruises, and broken bones have been bookmarks of my travels down the path of time. Gradually degenerative changes in the joints have left deformities and bone spurs accompanied by aches and pains.

            Fillings in my teeth and a partial plate are hidden in the annals of time, mark the passing of years. Testing and x-rays are the writing and photographs recording those changes in my life. So far, two colonoscopies have made internal journeys and a third is planned for six months. I was told after my last that it would be three years until my next, but with the pathology report, my gastroenterologist called and gave me the great news, six months instead. One of the sample biopsies must have been border line. It was just another indication of the aging process and the vulnerability of this degenerating tent of flesh.

            It is all part of the way we are created. From the fall of Adam and Eve, mankind has a set number of days. My life isn’t all doom and gloom. I look at my past and see my path festooned with blessings and the sunshine of love; children, and grandchildren. My future steps are directed by the sunshine of my children and their children. These footsteps fall in the natural cycle that God has created.