The Dust Storm of Reality

It’s a blow when reality kicks dirt in my face and insists I examine beliefs I’ve carefully stored in a box labeled Things That Will Never Happen to Me.

The dust started swirling the day I realized I needed a jacket when it was 99 degrees outside and 75 degrees inside. Apparently, only elderly people bundle up during a Texas heat wave.

Then there’s the matter of my walking.

When did I stop striding down sidewalks as if I were leading a military parade and start shuffling along like someone searching for a lost contact lens? Somewhere along the way, my posture rounded, my pace slowed, and my determination to look youthful lost a few skirmishes.

For years I assured myself I would never shuffle. I would never wear sweaters in warm weather. I would never make repeated midnight pilgrimages to the bathroom.

I would never lose words halfway through a sentence and replace them with, “You know...that thing.”

Most importantly, I would never look old. Not me. I would disguise the wrinkles, outsmart the aches, ignore the creaks, and carry on as if aging were something that happened to other people.

Unfortunately, reality keeps excellent records. This morning I stumbled out of bed, felt a chill, and immediately began searching for sweatpants and a sweatshirt. As I wrapped myself in enough fleece to survive an Arctic expedition, the dust finally settled.

There it was. The truth. I can believe I am young, energetic, and surprisingly spry. But when others look at me, they don’t see the twenty-five-yearold version still living in my head. They see an eighty-four-yearold woman carefully navigating her way through the day.

And the funny part is that younger people are looking at me while thinking exactly what I once thought.

I won’t have wrinkles. I’ll never need a cane. I’ll wear a bathing suit forever. I won’t shuffle. Bless their hearts. The dust storm of reality simply hasn’t reached their closet yet.

But it will.

And when it does, they’ll discover what our parents conveniently neglected to mention: aging isn’t something that happens to old people.

It happens to everybody.