Learning to live the present like the main event

Bruce Springsteen sang, “It ain't no sin to be glad you're alive,” — and we are. My friend Gene Rainbolt and I are just weeks away from another birthday. As Gene tells people, we've got 174 years between us!

The past year of 2020, we both had the coronavirus, and I underwent a spinal fusion. Like everyone else, we did not have social events on our calendar, we spent more time with just the two of us, and to our surprise we moved through those changes quite comfortably.

A strange year — and yet we count our blessings. One year richer in friendships. One year richer in watching children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren grow and mature and meet life challenges in ways that leave us proud. One year richer in moving through our own life changes and coming out wiser and clearer about who we are and what is really important in life — and what is a waste of our time.

While we may have more knowledge, we also have more opinions. So, if you ask us a question, you will get an honest answer.

We also choose to define the years we have left in a way that is positive. Mark Slazman's book “Lying Awake” tells the story of a young nun who is observing the aging Sister Priscilla. The young nun says she has always experienced time as the measurement of waiting — waiting for her mother to return, waiting for her life to begin, always waiting for something. But for Sister Priscilla, she noticed, “The waiting seemed to be over. The main event was underway.”

Think about how you view the remaining years of your life. Going downhill? Just waiting to die? The Main Event? or as my friend Alison calls it — The Encore!

How you view it will be how you live it.