So this is how it happens. This is still the early show.
You have lived long enough now that the sum of all of your behaviors, habits, relationships, experiences, and choices are now showing. The results of all of the things that you thought you got away with because there was no early evidence of what your mother, grandmother, and aunts warned you about are now showing.
If you smoked for any extended period of time, you can’t be too surprised if you now have discolored lips and teeth, and a leathery complexion. If you loved the drink, you might be dealing with a cranky liver and just have “that look” about you. If you’ve been a glutton, the pot belly, back boobs, FUPA, along with other complications like high blood pressure, high cholesterol, type-2 diabetes, and declining heart health might be all too familiar. Couch potato = flat bottom, poor muscle tone, and high susceptibility to deep vein thrombosis. If you've kept poor oral health, you probably have jacked up teeth, gums, and breath, no surprise.
If you’ve been friendly, open, selfless, you’ve probably got a good circle of friends and probably radiate positivity. If you’ve been a responsible, reliable, and upright person, you probably experience people from your past reconnect with you at this life- transitional phase. And if you didn’t listen to your mother and grandmother when they told you to wear socks in the dead of winter because you thought the look of your naked ankle peeking out from under pants above a merlot colored leather loafer was more important, you’re probably suffering from creaky joints and arthritis.
When you become “of a certain age”, you strangely reach a place where things noticeably start to shift and sometimes jolt you. Friends and family get sick and they leave us. The acquisition of things that were once so important, highly sought after, now hardly raise an eyebrow. You realize that younger people that you work with, family members, younger friends are actually looking at you and turning to you for advice. If you are well read, you have the wisdom of the ages from great literature, fiction, and non-fiction to draw from and share. If you are well traveled, you will want to even more. If you have completed a super event like a marathon, you begin to wonder how many more super events do you have left in you. If you’ve developed strong meaningful relationships, you should have learned to value them, overlook the difficult times and draw strength from what makes you feel good and respected.
This is just the matinee now showing. This hardly is all there is. Get busy, start adding up the sum of your memories and experiences and start planning for the next showing. If you’re reading this, you’re still passing through this place and opportunities are everywhere for you to make and take.
My life experiences range from crying at the sight of babies orphaned from AIDS and lack of good medical care in Zambia and Haiti to rejoicing with the saints right here at home. If it is God’s will, many more tears will trickle down these cheeks in silence and there will be many more hallelujah mornings ahead. The main event is still in development.
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