My Body

Rise up, dear body, face the day
Refuse to let fatigue hold sway
You’ve life to live and much to give
Dare to venture, be active
Left foot forward, then the right
Your journey lasts until it’s night
Walk hard, good body, but be wise
Know where your outer limit lies
You once flew fast with eagle’s wings
When then you drank from youthful springs
But now you’re aged, and not yet home
With many miles left to roam,
And crucial matters to attend —
Press on, my body, ’til the end.

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It creeps up on you.

After a couple of decades of being able to do seemingly anything, with no ill effects, one day your neck hurts when you wake up because the pillow you slept on was either too firm, or not firm enough. Or maybe it’s that the food you’ve been eating for your entire life all of a sudden doesn’t digest as effortlessly as it once did. Or maybe your lower back hurts when you stand up and sit down.

It just gets more difficult from there.

But what do you do when your body starts to betray you and you still (God willing) have decades left to live? You cajole yourself into action and you start taking better care of yourself. I won’t presume to give anyone specific advice on how to do that, but my philosophy has been to just try forming one good healthy habit at a time. It takes about 90-100 days to form a habit. But over the course of a few years, the good habits start adding up.