Perspective

By Margit Lisa

While searching around the internet for something that would evoke the idea of perspective, I found this picture on Fine Art America. It's perfect, since it's an image of clouds taken from an airplane. I've spent many an hour staring out the window at the beauty underneath me as I let my mind wander. At first I thought this was a picture of ocean waves, and when I realized what it actually is, it took my breath away.

I'm having trouble getting started on this morning's post. I woke last night thinking about it, realizing I didn't have anything percolating around in my mind, other than a background worry about health and the flu. I'm careful when I open doors and touch surfaces used by other people, since I realize that I am now officially classified as "elderly," and we are especially at risk for the flu and related illnesses. My ex-boss Mickey is 73, and he came down with it and is now in the process of recovering. He didn't get a flu shot this year, so he got really, really sick. I've learned that one of the two strains of flu going around right now is well matched to the vaccine, but the other one isn't. The Center for Disease Control has a really good website here.

I've got a doctor's appointment on Tuesday, which means I have to go to the place where I will be mostly likely to unwillingly pick up the flu: a medical facility. I'll be particularly cautious while I'm there. It's for my annual checkup, so I went in for a fasting blood test last week. PeaceHealth, my wellness clinic, has an online feature so that I could see the results within a few hours after the tests. I am always nervous about my cholesterol numbers, since I take a statin and don't want to have to take any more of it than I already do. The numbers were good. In fact, all of my results were positive, so I was very pleased. The doctor also wanted to see how I'm doing with Vitamin D (the sunshine vitamin), and even those numbers were good. That is only because I take 2,000 IUs of Vitamin D-3 every day. Even so, I was still on the low end of the normal range.

It's an inevitable thing that we all will grow old and die of something, but that doesn't mean I shouldn't take as good care of myself as I can, right? I am addicted to exercise, so it isn't hard for me to make myself work up a sweat. I avoid sugar and wheat products and work hard to keep my weight within bounds. Twice a week I talk with Norma Jean on video chat and we compare our routines and reinforce each other. Two weeks from today I will be writing this Sunday morning post from her home in Florida. I have no doubt that when I return home I will have some new ideas about exercise and eating well. Norma Jean is the only person I know who is more addicted to exercise than I am. It makes me wonder if it is a genetic thing. No, our other siblings don't seem to have caught the exercise bug.

Now that's a bug I don't mind catching. Yesterday I walked with twenty other women in the frigid air on our latest walk. Once the clouds cleared away earlier this week, taking the wet drizzly days with them, the temperature dropped precipitously. For the last three days it's been very cold (well, for us: highs in the mid-30s). Outside before dawn the temperature is 20 F (-6.5 C). That makes me very happy to be warm inside. Our heat source is completely electric in this apartment, which means we would need to find shelter somewhere else if suddenly the power went out. Even worse, there would be no internet! (I'm being flippant; please forgive me.)

I realize that I make choices every day that impact my environment and consequently my health. It would be safest to stay inside and avoid contact with the outside world, only drive my own car instead of taking the bus, shop online instead of mingling with others in stores. But my quality of life would be so much less desirable, so I will take my chances out there in the wide, wide world. I found a quote from Susan Elizabeth Phillips that says it all:

I finally figured out that not every crisis can be managed. As much as we want to keep ourselves safe, we can't protect ourselves from everything. If we want to embrace life, we also have to embrace chaos.

And maybe when I fly to Florida in a couple of weeks I can get a different perspective on life when I look out at the clouds. I'd better keep my camera handy.