Over the last few months, several
older friends unexpectedly fell into life changes due to medical issues.
Nothing life threatening, but still a diagnosis that meant change must come
sooner, rather than later, into their routines.
One of the main changes dealt with
whether or not they could continue to work. A necessary knee or hip replacement
turned into hours of physical therapy after the surgery. For a couple of
friends, the promised “cure” from the procedure didn’t result in anything more than
a little less pain. Their range of motion remained less. Plus, no one talked
about the fact that after a certain age one’s overall stamina and energy don’t
return to the same pre-surgery level. The promise that things would be “as good
as new” simply didn’t hold up. For these friends, a loss of income coupled with
extraordinarily high medical bills meant they now ride on a roller coaster of
anxiety.
For me, I started counting my
blessings daily. During the spring semester last year, the plague (aka
allergies) knocked me down for the count. By the long, lazy days of summer, I
resolved to hedge myself against another rough spring by joining my son on his
lifestyle change. I dropped flour from my diet. No bread. No cereal. No
cookies. No cakes. No pastas. No battered or gravy laden meats. In the process
of avoiding flour, I pulled away from most processed and preserved foods. This
dramatic diet change resulted in more energy. I worked more consecutive days
this fall and winter than I have at any other time in the past. Was this change
easy? No. Was this change necessary? Definitely.
As I viewed friends grappling with
health issues that led to their ability to work, I began wondering what would
happen if I could no longer work at my post-retirement job. What could I do to generate income if I
couldn’t jump into a car and head out? I recently sat back and reflected on the
things I love to do—my writing and photography topped the list. In what way
could I combine these two pleasures into generating a little income that would
shift me away from a total dependence upon my current occupation? My son,
always a creative soul, suggested a few days ago that I could use my
photography, combined with my love of words and phrases, to generated unique
t-shirt designs that I could sell online.
With my blog, I hope to share the
tales of my adventures as I discover the ins-n-outs stepping out of my comfort
zone and into new possibilities.
Copyright 2019 Elizabeth Abrams Chapman
