When did you begin taking more notice of your own mortality and age? (long-term, screaming)
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Both my parents died at the age of 53. I will be 52 next month. I have been thinking about my mortality a lot recently. I'm not obsessed with dying young or anything because three of my grandparents lived into their 90's and I'm hoping I've inherited some of their good genes. However, I am thinking more about the fact that my life will eventually end and I think of the people I will leave behind.
At 56, I'm the same age as my father when he passed when I was a teenager. My two older siblings also mentioned it when they hit 56. I feel like my health and time are limited, always find myself saying things in terms of how old I will be in the scale of how much possible time I might have left. When I quilt, I quilt and think of it as an heirloom that someone might remember me by when I go. How many quilts can I still get done?
I'm also a late life runner. I usually can place in my age category in 5k. I've been thinking of my times getting slower with each passing year, and how much longer I can make myself get out there and run, when I'm within reach of the big '60' in my mind, and a time to 'slow down'
My BH and I hope to relocate after I retire, and thinking of our 'dream house' and I find myself thinking of how many years I'll have left to actually enjoy it. He has a totally different mindset. As a combat veteran, he doesn't worry so much. He just tells me he I shouldn't worry about things I can't do anything about, and in his mind, if he's feeling stressed he just tells himself that no-one is shooting real bullets at him, and things aren't so bad!
I was diagnosed with a terminal condition the FIRST time when I was 26.
Doc was wrong.
Then told again when I was 28, 30, 34, 37, and 40 that I had anywhere from a few hours to a few months to live, by various doctors for various conditions.
I am now 58.(!)
What is this mortality you speak of? Lol!
I have always been aware of my own mortality....two of my siblings died by the time I was 7.
I had menigitis as a child and was not expected to survive.
Been beating the odds for so long, the odds should take out a restraining order against me!
Age didn't bother me until I noticed all these old dudes hitting on me when I was around 48-49.
So I got a 22 year old boyfriend for a couple years to cheer myself up.
Just live your life, enjoy yourself and do what gives you joy. Don't sweat the mortality thing. Death comes for us all...you can slip away quietly, or go kicking and screaming. I plan on the kicking and screaming strategy.
... Moral of the story, you can do everything right as far as your physical health goes and die tomorrow. Then you can smoke like a chimney, sit on your butt, drink until your liver is a piece of shoe leather and outlive everyone in your family.
Indeed. How does the passage go... "The race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the warriors, but time and chance overtake them all".
There's something in the modern psyche, and especially in the modern American psyche, that insists that success or failure in life are almost entirely within the purview of our own choices. Choose wisely, and you'll prosper. Choose foolishly, and you'll suffer ignominy, failure and untimely death. It's true that not studying for an exam courts higher chance of failing it, and eating to disgusting excess raises the odds of becoming obese. But it's just as true that healthy people can die suddenly (or after protracted and debilitating illness), while many who abuse their bodies somehow manage to outlive their healthy counterparts. Spendthrifts can nevertheless retire comfortably, while misers might go bankrupt. We can never be sure, and can never entirely claim credit (or failure) for ourselves.
Perhaps the real lesson here isn't so much about mortality and age, as of the vagaries and sudden reversals of life. There we are, bumping along without struggle or travail... and then we're not. Then again, there we are, defeated and ground down... to suddenly rise again.
My realization of mortality hit me big time when my first DH died of a massive heart attack when he was forty five. He was extremely healthy (or so we thought). He wasn't overweight, he was very active, and played racquetball several times a week. I had just started nursing school. His death motivated me to enjoy life to it's fullest, once for me and doubly for him. I finished nursing school and remarried.
My realization of age creeping up on me was right about the time I turned sixty. I always looked ten to fifteen years younger and was way too busy to think about aging. I'm almost sixty two now and just sold my business to retire and enjoy puttering around the house and spending time with DH, my children, and grandchildren.
45. I didnt feel bad or anything and in fact - since I quit smoking three years ago - feel better than I have in years even with the weight gain from quitting I started to see an end to my life. It might still be 40 years from now but it is still a finite number.
I'm also a late life runner. I usually can place in my age category in 5k. I've been thinking of my times getting slower with each passing year, and how much longer I can make myself get out there and run, when I'm within reach of the big '60' in my mind, and a time to 'slow down'
I run an occasional 5K and I'll be 67 this fall. I didn't begin running until I was 61. I used to run 3-4 miles 5X a week but now I've cut back to 2-3 miles 4X a week. Not because I'm tiring but because I wanted to make more time for yoga and strength training.
As a retired nurse, I will post this but ask that others respect MY right to MY feelings as I will you on yours on this subject.
Working as a medical professional, I saw everything from premie newborns to those that had wonderfully long lives pass.
Recently, I helped my dear, younger sister in her battle with cancer until she passed. Her husband, 2 yrs older than her passed suddenly, with NO warning 2 years before of a massive heart attack while out buying a new motorcycle.
NONE of us get out of here alive, we will all pass, so my fear of dying is not so much the issue, but the debate of IF you had the opportunity, would you have rather known in advance to have the time you have left to do what you want and feel like YOU are calling the shots on your final days, or would you rather no notice, fall over dead. Unfortunately, my sister kept saying she WISHES she had passed suddenly as her husband had without warning. She did not find the 2 yrs from diagnosis to passing a blessing or gift at all to make closure/peace with life and finish her "bucket list". I personally am torn, but know I do NOT fear death, because of my strong faith. The only thing I fear is pain and suffering in passing over.
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