If I were more agile I would ...

I notice more and more that I am moving just a little more careful than I used to. I was leaning down to get a new trash bag for the kitchen trashcan and I remember thinking to myself “ why does Kate insist on putting these things all the way in the back? It makes it almost impossible to reach them”.

The funny thing is that the bags have been in the same place for the past eight years. Maybe it is that I had lost some of my flexibility and agility.

We watched a special the other day on these people… evidently some close knit organization, and a small one, of people who can put themselves in small boxes and who can twist themselves into knots. I’m sure you have seen these special individuals. They do have a gift. They are the most agile and flexible of all of us.

I don’t want to do that. I don’t want to watch that. I do want to be able to wiggle into tight places when I need to or under the car or truck to check out an unusual noise or something, but I don’t want to get in a box the size of this computer and monitor!

If we don’t use what we have and take care of what we have, we all will need to buy slip-on shoes before our time. My lifelong friend, Jim Greenwood, has remained wonderfully active forever. He has always taken good care of himself and continues to compete in running and cycling races. He is now in the over forty categories, but he is out there remaining agile.

I was on a visit to Arizona not too long ago and there were children running around everywhere. My sister Dana was there with half of her children, I was there with half of mine and the neighbor’s children were there too. We had all invaded Dad’s fiefdom.

I came downstairs one morning and I saw Dad sitting on the edge of his chair. I wasn’t real sure what was going on, but he was huffing and puffing under his breath. I saw a couple of kids scamper off out of the corner of my eye and when I focused in on him, I saw him holding a couple of antique ice hooks. I thought he had finally snapped. He looked at me and I looked at him…

What I didn’t see at first was that the ice hooks were very precisely guided into the loops on his boots. He was using the hooks as an extension of his hands. It was easier for him to grab on to the handles on the hooks than those little loops they put on boots. Years of hard work had taken a little agility from Dad’s hands.


Shannon R Killman