Getting Older

“As you get older; you've probably noticed that you tend to forget things. You'll be talking with somebody at a party, and you'll know that you know this person, but no matter how hard you try, you can't remember his or her name. This can be very embarrassing, especially if he or she turns out to be your spouse.”

                                                                                                      Dave Barry

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It’s a funny thing, aging

I mean really

What does it feel like to get “older”

There is a part of me that doesn’t know

That feels as young as I have every felt

But of course

There is the me that shows up in the mirror

Who is that old man?

With such white hair

Age spots

Wrinkles

A belly

And it is true

That this body cannot do what it used to do

And most mornings, it just hurts

I’m at the point where everything hurts, and what doesn’t hurt

Doesn’t work

I still have energy

Until 2 pm

And I can still find enough energy, to do some tasks that needed doing.

But I can’t remember jack

And there are hundreds if not thousands of people out there, whose faces I recognize,

But whom I cannot give a name…

And so many names, that don’t have faces,

And I look back and know

I could not longer do what I once did

I could not build Wallowa Valley Center for Wellness, again

I will never be the dynamic pastor I was at Lake Grove

Things are now missing

It is not that I don’t have a sense of future

Its just that my future is…

Limited

And at times I look wistfully into the past

When so much more

Lay ahead