When a train goes off track, it’s an immediate disaster. When people do it, it’s a slow ride until it seems out of nowhere, there it is. Disaster! It’s so easy to eat the wrong foods, drink the wrong drinks, and put everything good for us off for some future day.
A train running on its track is an effortless, smooth run in the right direction. For most people, living off track is an effortless, smooth run, albeit in the wrong direction. But only when you’re young. As we age, the wrong direction seems more apparent as the obstacles and disasters appear. Out of nowhere!
The knees go, the back goes, the heart slows, the brain lapses.
I was on a zoom call last night with people my age. One called in from a hospital room. Another mentioned an upcoming chemo appointment. And one other talked about a complicated upcoming surgery that insurance may not pay for.
It’s lunchtime as I write this, so I paused to fill a small fiesta ware cup with coffee, and a handmade mini bowl with potato chips. On my way out of the kitchen, I walked right past a bowl of grapes but stopped to break off just a square of a Milkboy swiss chocolate candy bar. My food pyramid is a little askew. Coffee, salt, and chocolate comprise most of the bottom section.
Other people’s off-track causational distress seems to have affected me very little as I sit comfortably on the couch in my elasticized yoga pants with no intention of doing yoga.
I’m fully aware, but somehow not bothered by knowing I could easily crash like my friends on the call. Like smokers, I pretend to be an exception.
Despite my heart, liver, kidneys, and brain yelling, “Disaster ahead!”, I feel totally satisfied after my delightful lunch. Well, maybe I need a fresh cup of coffee. And possibly a nap.