When we mend something with gold, we’re not only solidifying the base, we’re holding true to the importance of the damaged item.  Such is as it is when you grow old.

I’m in a point in my life where six month checkups are the norm.  I used to think it was so the medical profession could reach into your pockets for one more appointment charge, but I now realize that us elderly survivors need to be examined more often.  The process of aging makes things fall apart at a faster rate.  Within six months, your mind can play all sorts of tricks on you.  You start thinking that a particular pain indicates cancer.  You see your friends dying around you and you believe you’re next.  You really need reassurance that you’re going to make it for the next six months.

I think we live in a society that looks at aging as the final act of life.  Once you’ve achieved success in whatever you chose to do with your life, it’s time to sit back and enjoy yourself.  Most folks are living well into their 80s and 90s and still have it all together, but things happen to us.

We don’t look the same.  Our bodies are sagging in all the wrong places.  Our hair is turning colorless and thin.  Our teeth are not our own.  What we have grown to expect as high energy has deflated into forcing yourself to move.  We watch commercials that promise to take away under eye bags and suck the fat out of bodies and realize we’d need more than a truckload of those things to cover every imperfection.

We’re not as quick on the draw as we once were.  We need a little more time to formulate our ideas, come up with solutions or put a plan into action, but we’re still capable of doing so.  When we’re in the growing up stage of life, we look at every advancement as a success.  When we’re in the aging stage, we don’t garner much applause for our accomplishments.  Were often taken for granted or deemed useless.

As long as these six month check ups reveal that I’m still within the normal range on all my blood work – my blood pressure is right where it should be – my asthma is under control – I should be good for another six months.  By then I will have either thought of many more things that are bothering me or I will be filled with gold.  Knowing what God has in store, makes me confident of the latter.