Remembrances
Even though I’m still feeling young and healthy in my early 60s, I do notice different signs of aging. I have more gray hair, my knuckles are swelling on my hands, and many other subtle differences. I’m keenly aware that I have less years ahead of me than I have behind now. While I’m very grateful for my health and vitality, I can’t help but to reflect on the remembrances in Buddha’s teaching: I am of the nature to grow old; I am of the nature to have ill health; I am of the nature to die; all that is dear to me and everyone I love are of the nature to change… There’s no way around these truths although one may argue science could change that. Yet the last of the remembrances says, “my actions are my only true belongings. I cannot escape the consequences of my actions. My actions are the ground upon which I stand.”