Coming Down

​Coming Down
I heard something today I found quite interesting.  The person said, “I find going down more tiring than going up.”  They were referring to their age in this instance, but it seems to me to be a truism in much of life.
It does not surprise me that they say “age shall not weary them.”  Retirement is looked forward to as some sort of golden age.  It has distinct things going for it but what happens physically is not one of them.
I am encouraged to believe that it is a time of putting my feet up, being free from encumbrances, engaging in activities I never had the time to develop.  While there is a measure of truth in those statements, what is never told or mentioned is what is inevitable for all.  Deterioration.  My body betrays me.  My mind may do the same.
I do not know how often I hear it said, “I thought I could do the same as I have done in the past.”  When it is tried it is found to be untrue.  Recovery time is needed.  The recovery time needed seems to increase the older one gets.  Eventually there comes a time when what was once a given is no longer attempted.
It is one of the reasons I am glad Merril and I are known as “team Kuskie.” We may not attempt alone what was once a given, but together we can.  Maybe we do not achieve what was once possible for us as individuals, but we attempt what we can do, and like what we see.
No longer only means never if I want it to.  As they say, there is more than one way to skin a cat.  Sometimes the two of us can achieve what each of us alone cannot.  At other times another can achieve what we have in mind.  We would do if we could, but we cannot.
To me, coming to the end does not mean the end.  Mourning the loss of youth does not mean staying at the point of mourning. 
Maybe I need more stops than I did once, but there comes a time for me to pull out into the traffic once again.  Being in the lane does not guarantee arrival but it does guarantee heading in the direction I am going.  Maybe I get there later than I did, but I get there.  Maybe I use the slow lane where I used to use the fast lane.  But people both in the fast and slow lane sometimes do not get where they are going.
Chances are the driving is shared where it was once done alone, but to me it is reaching the destination that matters more than the time it may take to get there.
I have seen times where the car is left at home or sold.  Driving is no longer an option.  But that does not mean there are no longer any options.  Too often it seems limitations are self-imposed or imposed by those who have an agenda that has no concern for me.
Personally, I refuse to accept limitations on me that have been set by another against my choice.  Coming down the mountain may be more fraught for me than going up was, but I am just happy to get down the mountain in the intended way.