On Being Sixty. Week One Of Fifty-Two

Week One Of Fifty-Two. 

What strikes me, is how important one week is. 

It is more important to me now that I am on the down side of my life span. What I also realise is that I would have benefited more in life if I had understood that distinction in my younger years. But, I didn’t and it doesn’t matter. That is also something of value that I have learned this week, this week one of fifty-two. The distinction, that all of the worry and regret that I didn’t truly understand until now, will not change the fact that the value of every second of my life was important. So in setting this goal of achieving the sixty things in this next year has allowed me to see the value of my life and the time that I have gifted to me by the miracle of being alive at all. I have an opportunity every minute of every day to live life to it's fullest.

One of the unexpected things that has come from this endeavor, is the feeling of my own humanity. I, like many people my age, am confronted with the fact that I will someday be a memory and not a reality. One day I will run out of days. All of my dreams and plans will simply disappear along with the passing of my life. So what then is the reason for the time we are allotted, what are we here to do?

Why? This is a question I have been asking myself a lot lately. Why do I do the things I do? What is the reason that is behind me getting up in the morning and going to work? Why did I want to have children? Why do I love my wife so much even though we have had our difficult times? So difficult in fact that any sane person (Including my wife) might have quit in search of a better option, but we didn't. At least that question I can answer; I love my wife so much that the thought of not having her in my life seems unbearable. It seems to me that a part of my body would be missing. It seems a crime that all of the growing together through thick and thin just to throw it all away would be a sin.

The rest and the reason why, is going to be at the forefront of my thinking and discovery over the next year. In fact that is the reason for wanting to achieve the sixty things. I did not know that when I started out with the list, I just thought it would be cool to say I had ticked them all off. It’s the journey. I know that’s a cliché, but it’s true. I just had to grow a little in order to understand that distinction.

In week one I have completed two of the items from my checklist. I have worked on several others and I have grown emotionally and spiritually. I have spent more time with my family and I think become a slightly better person. Today I went fishing with Paige. Paige is seven and she is willing to fail because as yet, society has not  been allowed to infect her with a value on failure other than the fact that it is just part of learning. We had a great couple of hours at the lake, we caught a fish and we shared in a common bond of simply being. 

Failure is part of the journey it happens to all of us.

Lee