Peanut

Written using the following randomly-chosen words as a prompt:

travel; Europe; information; walk; fet fit; finally

“Keep fit classes,” my GP suggested.
“Before I can join a keep fit class, I have to get fit,” I replied.

I can always find an excuse not to exercise. Osteoarthritis in all my joints, stiffness which goes with Parkinson’s disease, two metal knees, etc etc. The real reason is that I detest the ritual, the hilly neighbourhood I live in, walking the same walks, putting my mind in gear, the list is endless.

I can do random walks when in a strange place (geographically) and can walk round my garden ad infinitum, pull up a weed or two, tie up an unruly Rudbeckia, gather up the expelled Yukka leaves, any amount of pruning. There is always something that needs attention if you have a garden. But exercise …

I do love to dance, but Zumba nearly killed me, I don’t have the coordination or the nerve to do ballroom dancing, what does that leave? I have been known to check that the neighbours are not around, ask Alexa to play Saturday Night Fever  and then gone into my disco diva act. But nowadays I would fall over a lot, so let’s not dwell on that!

Walking holidays were a regular event in my youth; the Peak District, The Lake District and a few cliff top walks in Europe, mainly along the Granite Rose coast of Brittany. Nowadays travel is restricted to wherever I can go without having to endure seemingly endless flights packed with screaming children and drunken revellers, or places that have hospital staff that speak English. This involves a lot of pre-trip information gathering.

Finally, I have decided that I will never be fit enough, so I’ll settle for getting   a little fitter (gas, electric, kitchen, bathroom !!!???)

J Taylor

If I had known ...

Over the years many people have said “if I had know then what I know now,  I    would never have … etc, etc.’

But surely that is the problem? We never are able to predict the future with any degree of certainty, and hindsight is a mixed blessing.

So I ask you the basic question: how far would you like to see into the future? Will you take: a day, a week, or a year?  Indeed, would you dare to try and see ten years into your own personal future? It is tempting to consider little “snap shots,” but how could you ever put them into any form of context?

The other matter that has to be taken into consideration is how much we can truly shape our own future. We take exams, we try to keep fit, we fill our lives with many forms of learning, but in the end we return, as the Bible warns, “to dust.”

So NO, I do not want to know what is coming. Actually, I only need to know about my own daily walk through life.  And (thank God) of those who are walking with me. Hope is, on the other hand, a very useful thing to have. There again I turn the pages of my Bible:

“To every thing there is a season.”

“Do not be afraid” (found 366 times)

 

David Taylor
21.9.2020