Feeling Better

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rage at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

-- Dylan Thomas

Today, I walked two miles.  That may not seem like much but it's the first time in two weeks that I could stride through Seymour at a good clip.  I have been feeling stronger each day but today I felt that I was almost back to myself.

One night at Lake Ottawa, I couldn't sleep.  Almost all the night, I lay in bed listening to the forest sounds and thinking about getting old.  The aging part has never bothered me, but getting weaker does.  I want to keep on charging through life rather than creeping timidly.  

As morning came on, I decided that the best way to recover my health was to plan future adventures and look for new challenges, and that is what I have been doing this week.  

The challenges will be writing all the stories I have swimming around in my head.  It means finishing the final draft of my current novel.  I have several non-fiction books to get out there, too.  There's the tale of Jake Dog, my Australian shepherd.  There are the travel books and maybe one about coming of age in the 1960s.  

There are still places I want to visit:  Ireland, Botswana, Brazil, and Hawaii are on the list and others, too. 

To do everything I want to do, I have to be healthy, so I am working back to a regimen of walking, swimming, biking, and exercising. Healthy eating is part of the plan.  

I will rage against the dying of the light with joy and enthusiasm.