One hates to admit mortality but awareness increases in the twlight of the years. Simple tasks like climbing steps become challenges of pain and endurance so you can imagine what a night of running up and down the sidelines of a football field can do to aching and failing joints.

Weekends once dedicated to “honey-do” lists become rehab time needed to allow the body to recover from the rigors of the week. Carrying a box of books up two flights of stairs requires twice as much time to rest and recover. You gobble aspirin like candy and spend extended periods of time soaking in the hot tub, hoping the pain will ebb and you can muster enough strength to complete the tasks of the day.

But you can’t and the list of unfinished tasks grows longer and the garage you vowed to clean out months ago remains cluttered with boxes and stuff from a move last January.

More workouts at the gym might give you the stamina needed for mundane weekend tasks but that takes time and time is something you don’t have.

Come on, you say. Snap out of it. You’ve faced far bigger challenges, overcome many more daunting obstacles. Don’t let the realities of age get the upper hand. Pain is only the beginning and the only easy day was yesterday. Once, many years ago, a sadistic instructor stood over you and shouted those words until you worked through the pain and made it through the day.

How many times did you want to kick his teeth in? How many times did he shame you into going on when all you wanted to do was quit? Every time. That’s what mattered.

Twilight signals the end of the day but it does not have to signal the end of a life. The only easy day may have been yesterday and pain is something you’ve lived with most of your life.

Suck it up. Life goes on…and so must you.