Four oh? Meh. Feels more like a two-five. God has blessed me with good health, a great marriage, cool friends, entertaining cats, a wonderful job, and many consuming interests.

I've been blessed and lucky with my health. I haven't had any major health issues to deal with (knock on wood). I rarely drink (and never more than one at a sitting), and I've always found the smell of cigarette smoke repulsive, so I never had to fight those addictions. Even tragedy has helped me: my adoptive family suffers from heart issues, which made me aware in my early twenties that you have to pay attention to your health. College courses and advisors that warned me that it gets harder to keep off weight as your metabolism slows down. SO in my early twenties, I started exercising and changing my diet.

It took years, but now I'm down to within 5 pounds of my high school weight. I'm more physically fit than any time in my life except for a patch a few years back when I was training for a karate match, interrupted only by breaking my arm. There are a few cracks in the paint here and there - a metal plate in that same arm, a touch of arthritis maybe spawned from a knee injury in Japan, and I had an odd-looking but noncancerous mole removed last month - but overall, I feel great. I want to take on that next forty years - or the next forty after that.

It just goes to show you are always as old as you are, but you age as fast as you feel. Here's to many more years made special by the presence of friends rather than the passage of time.

-the Centaur

Labels: We Call It Living