Life is an adventure ! That is my "go to" outlook on surviving these days. I haven't always thought that life was an adventure . . . it's taken me years to come to that conclusion. When you're young you don't think about life at all. You just live every day to the fullest in the total pursuit of happiness. That mentality continues until you get married and reality slaps you up side your head while screaming, "It's not just about YOU any more." Those people who never get this message are the ones who's marriages end in divorce. Suddenly you are ripped from your happy little cocoon of selfishness into the state of having to share your every moment, thought, feeling with another person who you soon realize is NOT on the same page as you. As children most of us were not very good at sharing so we had great difficulty making that transition from the three year old mentality of "MINE" to the "mature" attitude of "Sure honey . . . what ever YOU want".
If we manage to survive marriage we then throw in a couple of kids to put your sharing abilities to the ultimate test. Your life is no longer your own because you are now a slave to husband AND children so you are not really in the "Life is an adventure" mode. It's more like, "My life is a nightmare". But we plod on and FINALLY the kids are grown and, with any luck, are moved out of your house. Now you're back to just dealing with your spouse, who by now, you have accepted for better AND worse. You know how to deal with them and with any luck the two of you can cohabitate without killing each other.
But even at this point you have not come to the realization that life is an adventure. I think that comes when you retire and no longer have to deal with the hassles of daily living. If you are blessed, like me, you get to move to someplace warm, leave all your old "stuff" behind you and now have time and money to revisit the "ME". That's when it starts to sink in that every day is an adventure. Waking up and being able to get out of bed and stand is an adventure. Hell, just going to be with the hopes of a good nights sleep is an adventure. Hoping you didn't spend too much on Christmas gifts for the grand kids is an adventure. It just goes on and on.
Part of having daily/hourly adventures is getting to play games. Remember as a kid how much you LOVED playing hide and seek? Or Red Light Green Light or Capture the Flag? Or even stick ball in the street? (For those of you who grew up in the country, I have no idea what games you played on a farm but I know you had your own variation of these "city kid" games. We were outside ALL the time and you got really creative when it came to entertaining yourself.
Now that we are in the adventure stage of our lives we have created all new games to entertain us each and every day. I happen to know that The Man does not realize he is playing any of my games but the fact remains that the games do go on all the time.
We begin our day with a race. I loved racing my friends and I must say I was usually the fastest one on the block. Now, in our golden years, the race to the bathroom is the first game we play each morning. As I lie in bed thinking about getting up to pee I hear The Man beginning to stir and I know I have to make it to the bathroom before him if I don't want to wait twenty minutes while he does breathing treatments or what ever else is going on in there. The twenty foot sprint takes me all of about three seconds which I think may be an all time record but I am not aware that anyone out there has documented this.
On days when the race is delayed because of having gotten up to pee very two hours during the night we get to perform the always necessary stretching. We rise slowly, making sure all the body parts are still working, and sit on the edge of the bed where we get to bend and stretch. Because my slippers have magically wandered under the bed during the night it is necessary to bend all the way down toward the floor and then S - T - R - E - T - C - H under the bed to find the damn things. Once this is done we move on to the coffee challenge. This is more of a game of mental acuity rather than a physical challenge. First in this game is determining if the cup in the dish washer is clean or dirty. If it is dirty then we must move on to determining where our favorite cup has been hidden. Once located there is the search for the new box of coffee pods because the box that they are usually in is now empty. Once. the coffee is located we move on to another hide and seek to locate the coffee creamer that is somewhere in the fridge. This is not a timed event so there isn't any pressure.
While one of us is completing the coffee event the other one gets to play our very favorite, daily, super challenge. WHERE'S THE NEWSPAPER ??????? This game involves not only stamina and agility but on certain days of the month it requires a fast paced game of "Capture the Flag". At least twice a month the landscapers enter our property with their noisy and FAST ride on mowers. Because the newspaper is usually somewhere out on the large lawn in front of our home it becomes a race to get out side as soon as you hear the mowers approaching. Next we must quickly locate the news paper and, before you or the paper can get run down, race out on to the lawn, swoop down without stopping, grab the paper and make it back to the lanai in one piece. These mornings are the ultimate challenge for people our age, involving speed, agility and awareness. All of which do not come easily to anyone over the age of 70.
All of the above games have been played before ten o'clock in the morning ! Which necessitates the need to play, "Is it too early to take a nap?" We play the Nap Game EVERY day !!!
Afternoons are usually quieter in the game department. Most days we limit ourselves to, "WHERE'S THE CLICKER?" and "DID I ALREADY PUT THE VODKA IN THE Bloody Mary?".
Yup . . . life is an adventure filled with fun and games.
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