Coming to Terms 1

No, not the Referendum Result and the apparent impending Brexit (or not?)!

These may be the concerns of ‘Coming to Terms 2’.

I am thinking about something more personal here.

Today I was (again!) at the doctor and was told that I may have to attend hospital for a wee surgical procedure entirely unrelated to my pre-existing conditions. Mildly irritating really… but perhaps a sign of the obvious; I am getting older.

This was brought home to me over my recent holiday. Jane and I were camping in Cornwall. We love camping and cannot understand why so many of our friends and contemporaries disparage it! Of course, we also enjoy those holidays spent in relative luxury in a hotel or on a cruise ship… (ah yes, cruise ships… more later!). But – for us – you cannot beat camping. The proximity to nature, the joy (yes, really!) of simple living, the absence of TV, and waking up to the dawn chorus… all wonderful!

But my poor ageing body is not coping as well as once it did. On getting up my muscles seemed to ache, my joints were stiff and my bones felt like they were creaking! But we are not giving up… instead we are thinking of investing in still more camping gear to facilitate future tent holidays.

But I am not as young as once I was.

That is where cruise ships come in…

…until ten years ago I considered a cruise the worst possible holiday I could imagine. Apart from anything else, it was for old people. Over recent years we have been on three (thankfully in small ships and not on these huge, grotesque, environmentally toxic behemoths). But I have become a bit of a convert. Could it be that is because I am reaching that age??

Back to our recent Cornwall holiday. As well as enjoying the camping and the periods of good weather, we went to a couple of places where you pay to get in. It was terribly unnerving to find that I qualified for a ‘Senior Citizen’ ticket. What! Me?

It was still more disconcerting that when I asked for such, no-one asked me for evidence of my age or questioned my eligibility! I mean, do I look 60?

Well, I know the answer. Every morning when I look in the mirror it is plain to see.

But I still find it mightily unsettling.

Musing upon all this with Jane, she commented

‘I always knew that one day I would be this old; I just didn't think it'd happen this soon!’

Very true!

I turned to Psalm 71 which is a real Psalm of old age.

‘Do not cast me off in the time of old age; do not forsake me when my strength is spent… even to old age and grey hairs, O God, do not forsake me, until I proclaim your might to all generations to come..’ (vs 9 & 18)

Yes, I think  I am coming to terms with it… but slowly.