as the days pass some flow with ease, others don’t. there are days of glorious sunrises, delightful adventures, deep connections with self and others, sunsets that inspire awe and great telly.
other days are filled with regret, leaden skies, painful news and boredom.
and then there are the days that remind us of the passage of days as registered in our physical form. an injury, a twist, a shooting pain, another limitation. these are the days that we might find ourselves in a feedback loop of sensation, labelling, desire for relief, and paracetamol. even the doing of ‘good’ things, such as exercise, might create these challenges.how do we respond? the entire gamut of emotions often arises in these moments...anger, disbelief, fury, amazement, sadness, grief, curiosity.
it is this last that might fascinate the elder. how has this body changed? what can I learn from this new ache, this unexpected pain? where is my threshold for these changes? can i breathe through this? do i need to visit a health care practitioner? My GP? A&E?curiosity seasoned with discernment might be the mantra of our ageing bodies. buddhists suggest we sit with and observe the sensations in the knowledge that they will change. the sensations will increase, decrease, cease altogether. and change they will. decades of experience with our bodies have taught us how they open to the new, how they shut down to the unexpected, what actions we usually take.some days are easy; some days not. it is true that some of us have higher tolerances that others of us. it is also true that some of us respond with more curiosity than others of us.what is important here is self-knowledge...knowing our patterns and choosing to follow them or to try something different. one path is not better than another, simply different.it is the awareness that matters whether the day is easy, or not.