Dos Gravity Matter?

Gravity was nothing I thought about until the aging process made it difficult to ignore. Each day it seemed like my body parts were being drawn closer to the core of the earth.

Droopy eyelids were the first to catch my attention. From there, other areas followed suit. Some were obvious and others could be forgotten until I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror. Why was the person who looked back at me so much older than I felt?

Hanging upside down in an effort to reverse the condition was not going to work. I had to face the fact that old age was no longer creeping but advancing at an alarming rate.

My outlook changed when our thirteen-year-old granddaughter asked me how old I was. She thought I was fifty! My daughter said, “Dad is forty-eight, do you think he and Gran look about the same age?”

Emily looked at me, then her dad, and then me again. She surprised me when she said, “I think they look about the same.” Her dad shrugged and I gave her a huge hug!

This exchange reminded me that I am far more critical of myself than others are. My flaws are evident when my attention is on them. This is true for more than appearance.

If I do ninety-nine things right and one wrong, what do you think I focus on? You know the answer because you’ve done it too, haven’t you?

I have to make a concentrated effort to stop examining my self-described defects and to look upon myself with the same love and grace others do.

Gravity is something I have no control over. The same is not true of my attitude. I think I’ll follow the advice of Robert Louis Stevenson who said, “Make the most of the best and the least of the worst.”