Age Adjustments

As we age in the world of martial arts, specifically for me karate-do, we should consider how we will handle that age adjustment. I am taking a different view now that I have reached the ripe old age of fifty-seven. I realized one day long ago that trying to keep up with my younger, stronger, younger martial associates simply resulted in wear and tear that no longer added to my health and fitness but started to actually wear the body that I perceived as detrimental to reaching a very large age number.

I wanted to make sure my body would handle life for a long, long time. I wanted my quality of life to be such that I would not be a hindrance or burden to those I love. The only way to do that is to treat my body according to the rules of mother nature. Once I passed fifty years, which is way beyond what it was for life expectancy back historically speaking, I realized that to go the distance I needed to adjust as I age.

I took my ego and dumped it, hopefully, where I could not be goaded into doing things by younger, stronger, younger persons. It was not beneficial to my spirit-mind-body. I admitted to myself that I am aging and I can adjust and still practice, train and, if so desired, instruct.

So, I was reading a really good book. It was a book or series that I read over twenty-five years ago. It was good then and even better now. It is fantasy and magical. It does take me places in my imagination that are really cool. Even so, it also provided me a quote that I feel applies to me and the aging adjustments, etc. Here it is:

"As you get older, you find that life begins to wear you down. Does not matter who you are or what you do, it happens. Experience, time, events - they all conspire against you to steal away your energy, to erode your confidence, to make you question things you would not have given a second thought to when you were young. It happens gradually, a chipping away that you do not even notice at first, and then one day it is there. You wake up and you just do not have the fire anymore.

Then you have a choice. You can either give in to what you are feeling, just say "Okay, enough is enough" and be done with it, or you can fight it. You can accept that ever day that you are alive you are going to have to face it down, that you are going to have to say to yourself that you do not care what you feel, that it does not matter what  happens to you because sooner or later it is going to happen anyway, that you are going to do what you have to because otherwise you are defeated and life does not have any real purpose left.

When you can accept the wearing down and the eroding, then you can do anything. You just have to get past the fear." - The Owl, "The Elf Queen of Shannara." by Terri Brooks

Our attitudes; our mindset; our "Jiko-no-hanashi-no-geijutsu," will need to change and taking this perspective, per quote above, may help to admit, understand, and accept the inevitable of life.

I just wanted to pass it along. Those of you who are no where near this time of life can put it into your mental storage locker for you may find it beneficial when the time comes. Those of you reaching or already there, I hope it provides something of value!