Getting Older

We hear people say things like “I don’t like getting older, but I don’t like the alternative either.”

When you’re younger, you don’t give much thought to doing the tasks that you know you need to do.

Build a raised garden bed. Moving dirt in so you can plant a vegetable garden.

Moving new furniture into the house, or moving all the furniture and belongings to a new house.

Replace the fence in the back yard.

Build a shed.

Build bookcases for the wife.

Move all the furniture away from the wall so wife can paint the walls (for the third time in 13 years).  🙂

Well, we bought a new sofa and because we didn’t want to wait for delivery, we decided to go pick it up at the warehouse and bring it home ourselves.

We’ve done things like that before… when we were younger. We picked up a  side-by-side refrigerator one time. Another time a chest deep freeze. Another time a queen size bed. On and on the list goes, over the 25 years we’ve been married.

We got the sofa home in the back of husband’s pick-up. Rigged a dolly to get it to the front door. We didn’t think it was that heavy, really. But it was bulky. The neighbor man saw us struggling to get it to the front door and offered to help. That was so nice.

The young man took hold of my end of the sofa and husband was on the end that was going through the door first. Well, husband was having a little trouble with his end of the load. So the nice young man decided they should trade ends and he was able to get it into the house.

As soon as we got it set up, legs installed, pillows in place, I immediately went and took some pain killer for my back. Honestly, it didn’t feel that heavy, but I sure was glad the neighbor came to our rescue.

In my mind, I don’t feel this old, but my body definitely lets me know how wrong my mind is.

What happened? It wasn’t that long ago that I could do whatever task I wanted to do or needed to do, no help needed.

When we went to bed that night, I just laughed at the both of us. We think we can just keep going like we were still in our 30’s or 40’s, but we learned we now have some limitations. The problem with that is, we don’t like having to ask others for help.

I have a new understanding and compassion for older people. Not that I didn’t have compassion before, but now I’ve experienced that reluctance to bother someone for help. Most don’t like asking for help or receiving help, but sometimes it’s unavoidable.

I’m going to make sure that Mom knows we’re there for her if she needs our help, and for her to not be embarrassed to ask us. If we can’t do it, we’ll find someone who can help us. Maybe some younger members in the church. It’s okay to humble ourselves and ask for help.

I sure don’t like getting older, but I’m not ready for the alternative either. Too many things to get done and more things to learn.

Even so, come Lord Jesus, COME!

Love,

Karen

This entry was posted in Reflections. Bookmark the permalink.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *