survive: v. to remain alive or in existence: live on; to continue to function or prosper

age: v. to become old: show the effects or the characteristics of increasing age

“No one told me getting old was going to be this hard. I’m tired. I’m done.” I had to agree with my friend. Aging is not for the faint of heart. For many, the daily activities of living as an octogenarian and beyond become grueling tasks. Looking into the future can create fear while the imagination runs wild.

My own experience resembled hitting a wall when I encountered my eightieth birthday . . . or it encountered me. “Age is just a number. You’re only as old as you feel, Mom.” My children tried to offer me encouragement, but I would have none of it.

The calendar served as a stark case-in-point. I am old. “Reality sits in front of me,” I told them. “My days are numbered, my time on earth is limited.”

The result: For the past year, I have lived in a state of decline—in truth, mostly an emotional one. The mind and the body connect in ways I do not think we can comprehend. I have no fear of death and my eternal future, but my mental and emotional state became more and more restricted as I focused increasingly on the fact of being eighty and old.

In times past, I would hop, skip, and jump along through life, barely noticing physical maladies. Post-eighty: I began noting every single twitch, twinge, blemish, or formerly inconsequential change in my physical and mental being. Is Alzheimer’s taking my mind over? Is my hip/shoulder/foot/knee giving out on me? What is that spot on my body? —Is it cancer? If you are an older person, perhaps you can relate. Or it might just be me.

I evolved from being a reasonable human regarding my physical body to a pathetic hypochondriac. Of course, I verbalized none of this but tucked the fears and thoughts away in the crevices of my mind, where they taunted me at random moments, often during the night.

My eyes focused on my body, literally from the top of my head to the bottom of my feet–thinning hair, mental and cognitive decline, hearing, vision, all the way down, ending in muscle tone (non-existent), and lack of balance and muscle strength. That is a lot to keep track of! But, as an eighty-something, I chalked it all up to “aging.”

I resigned myself to a life of enduring to the end. The aging thing never reverses and only ends in one place—death. “How and when” constitute the only unknowns.

Attitude makes a world of difference, and the opportunity to make a change came when I talked with another friend. As I bemoaned the facts of being an old person, she said, “Take the number, your age, off of it all and look at the life you have.” Bingo!

It didn’t take much time for me to realize and understand my focus was off. To begin with, I have been blessed with life, both physically and spiritually. In truth, I have a life filled with blessings, too many to enumerate.

The conversation that day changed my outlook on how to live out the rest of my life. Positive does beget positive. And negative begets negative.

How can I survive aging? The very phrase is an oxymoron. In the end, none of us will survive aging as it takes over our physical bodies, and they shut down. And yet I can survive aging by living a life of quality, not just one of endurance. This can happen every single day with an attitude of thankfulness and gratitude for all of the things I am able to enjoy.

I just spotted a little yellow bird enjoying my small fountain on my front porch. I weeded a messy, ugly, unruly flower bed yesterday and will plant it with bright blooms. A friend and I plan to visit a glorious rhododendron garden today, taking sandwiches for lunch along with us. On and on and on.

This is how I will survive aging: I won’t focus on what I can’t do or the amount of time I have left, but on those things I can do and how I live today. And, most importantly, I will trust my Heavenly Father to walk with me every step of the way.

May you experience the same.