How Many Good Years Do I Have Left?
This story applies to 20 year olds as well as 60 year-olds
I just passed another milestone. One more birthday in the limited span of a human lifetime. The actual number doesn’t matter (I’m actually considering not acknowledging those numbers or those birthdays anymore). It doesn’t matter because the only time that exists for any of us is the moment we are living right now.
If there are fifteen years of life behind us or fifty-five — If we have five minutes of life left ahead of us or fifty more years — it doesn’t change the fact that right here, right now, we exist — and that’s a tenuous victory, at best.
My husband and I just returned from a wonderful vacation in St. Lucia. As usual when we take tropical vacations, we enjoyed the sun, the sand, the sites, the casual conversations with other vacationers. We ate, drank, laughed and, overall, were quite content to chalk up another fine vacation on our lifetime chart of travel.
During one of these fine resort dinners, at the Japanese restaurant on the resort, we struck up a conversation with another couple.
They were fascinating people, to be sure. They were well-travelled and filled with tales of adventure. The woman, in fact, had recently completed the approximately 540 mile hike of the Camino de Santiago in Europe. She said it took her approximately six weeks to make the pilgrimage. She spoke with such a calm level of personal satisfaction that I couldn’t help but be a little envious of her effort and her success. She had accomplished a goal that was only a pipe dream for me.
Now, I can’t speak exactly about her age but, judging from her references about times and events in her life, I estimated her to be in her early 70’s. Again, a significant accomplishment.
Her husband, on the other hand, was clearly much less physically fit. Oh, he had his stories about his glory days, none of which was particularly recent. Still, his enthusiasm for life ran high. He mentioned a few health issues, including a rather recent heart surgery, which he claimed he was recovering from quite nicely.
As we talked about the places we had been and the places we still hoped to go, the gentleman said repeatedly, “I hope I have one more trip in me.”
He then enumerated those destinations still on his bucket list and offered up vague plans to make those plans a reality — while he still had time.
As recently as a few weeks ago, my husband and I were made aware of the loss of the sister of one of our neighbors.
This neighbor was really little more than a casual acquaintance that we might chat with at the communal mailbox cluster or on the sidewalk as she was walking her dogs.
It was while she was walking her dogs one day that we noticed a difference. Previously, we would stop to pet either her elderly chihuahua or her rambunctious young pup (Leo is one of those “doodle” combination dogs; I’m not quite sure what sort of pedigree he possesses).
On this particular day, we noticed her walking three dogs, the usual suspects plus an additional “doodle” combination style of puppy.
Being eternally curious, of course, we stopped to pet the dogs and asked when she had acquired a third dog.
She explained, with tear filled eyes, that she was taking in her sister’s newly acquired “doodle”-mix puppy because her sister had just passed away.
Her sister was a twenty-one year old college student who had succumbed to a heart attack in her college dorm room!
There was no known medical history that might have predicted this event.
Which brings me to the point of my ramblings.
An elderly man still had dreams and aspirations. For sure, a twenty-one years old college student had barely begun to explore the realm of possibilities in her world before her opportunities were snatched away from her.
Both could ask, and answer, the question of “How many good years do I have left?” with very different responses and expectations. And neither one could really predict, with any degree of accuracy, just how valid their answers might be.
It doesn’t matter where you fall in the continuum of life. The past and the future are vague, nebulous constructs. All that remains is to attack the present with renewed vigor and take every moment for what it’s worth.
Delay often equals defeat.
If you enjoyed this article, perhaps you would like to check out a few of my other thoughts on living and growing in a rich, full, vital life.
