Getting old...

Some of you already know that my grandfather is in the hospital and last week I spent some of my afternoons with him.

His about to turn 93 years old and the only real problem he has is his lungs. His legs don't work that nice anymore, but his mind and his heart are perfect. He is getting better and the good news is that he might get back home Monday afternoon :-)

I noticed that lots of seniors and elder people showed up in the hospital needing some medical care: an old lady brought her husband who had an ear problem and alzheimer, a girl drove her grandmom to the hospital due to some unknown reason, a retired dentist had a stroke and hit his head, and the list goes on.

While I was there I thought about me getting old.

I think there is nothing more cute than old people: they look so sweet with that elder wrinkly skin and white hair... We can exchange so much knowledge with them, and I just love to talk to old people and listen to their old stories and about history facts they had lived and seen with their own eyes.

However, looking at them in such a fragile physical and not healthy situation made me wonder if I am going to be able to handle myself getting older. Am I going to be brave enough to face physical disabilities and all the problems associated to old age?

I was thinking about my possible old age future and things didn't look that nice: my legs won't be working that good anymore, my heart will be weak, I have history of heart problems in the family and the chances of having a stroke are big, besides that I don't really take care of myself right now (I am overweight and don't do exercises regularly).

I don't know if I am strong enough to accept myself in need of medical and family care. Have you ever asked yourselves about that? Have you ever thought about death and when or how you are going to die (young, old, and in which conditions)?

Janis Joplin once said something like "live as much as possible, die young and be an attractive corpse". I am far away of being an attractive corpse, but I used to say that "die young" meant "die with your soul still young, never let your age turn your spirit old".

I always thought that we can get old in age, but we should always keep our spirits young. But how can we handle an young soul in an old body?

My afternoons in the hospital made me think a lot about that... What do you guys think about that?

Take care and have a nice week you all :-)