Being Active

There is a rhythm to my life, a consistent pattern here at home where I have a routine. Monday is laundry day. Tuesday evening is Trivia. Thursday evening is Name That Tune. Saturday is generally a social, group event of some kind although some days it is an evening event. Every few weeks I hit the road, go for a drive, perhaps for the weekend or just for a day. These regular activities bring me in touch with my friends; they keep me active and alive, out and about. These activities are anchors for me, framing all the other things that go on in my life.

It may not seem like much; some of these things are over in a couple of hours. They certainly cannot take up a whole day except for the road trips. Yet knowing they are coming gives me a focus, something to look forward to, a point of anticipation. The doctors talk about reasons to live when discussing end of life decisions. My social life is one of my reasons to live, one of the things that keeps me going.

It is kind of a good thing that these activities are by and large short in nature. It means I can get some rest, much needed rest, on a regular basis. It means that when I go out, I have had enough recuperation to put my energy and enthusiasm into living instead of dying; laughing, singing, shouting, and even my silly attempts at dancing in my wheelchair. I want to expend my energy on having fun, not on worrying about what might happen at some vague point in the future.

It's not "party, party, party" so much as it is being sure there are lively activities in my daily life, something to "do" when I have nothing in particular that I am supposed to do. Nor does this mean my life is always "go, go, go"; it means I have busy times and quiet times, times when I get out and times when I stay in. In this routine, my life is something like the lives of others around me.

Most of all, I don't want to be that guy sitting in his apartment waiting to die. If I must go, it will not be through indolence. While I march down this road, I plan making my life a brass band, a pipe band, a drum corp. There are not a lot of activities in my life; I just plan on making the most of the ones I have.