New Beginnings After Age 75?

(Note: This is my first post under the Category of 'My Personal Journey')

Is it even possible to have new beginnings at age 75? Most people think not. Just as my dear wife says:  

“What else is there after 70?   All we can do is wait, counting the days and hope to be in good health until our time comes to graciously leave this world.”

“We get bored only because we have no new goals to go after.”

Furthermore, boredom is nature's way of causing us to do something else beside thinking of ways to waste time.  So I asked myself:  

“Why should I not find something interesting to do, even at my age? 

After all we call this time of our life ‘the Golden Years’, don’t we?"

Just then I was reminded of the following quote by the Welsh poet Dylan Thomas:

"Do not go gentle into that good night; Old age should burn and rave at close of day; Rage, rage against the dying of the light." - Dylan Thomas

When I turned 75 two years ago, my sons organized a family birthday party at a popular Thai restaurant in Kuala Lumpur. Unfortunately for me, it was perhaps the only restaurant (on a hill) that did not have an elevator or an escalator!  It took me a long time (with a lot of rests in between) to climb the 60 or so stairs up to the top. This was because I had always had chronic asthma from childhood. 

However, my asthma had never stopped me from playing sports until my mid-forties. It was only after I took optional retirement at age 47 and began a 20-year career as a freelance Technical Writer that I had to give up tennis and other sports. 

(As the saying goes: “Use it or lose it!" came true in my case.  My sedentary lifestyle both at my work (using the computer) and at my hobby (watching TV) caused me to become less fit.  After 20 years of this lifestyle, my heart resting rate (a good key to fitness) had gone up to 84 beats per minute (bpm).  

This was much higher than my normal rate of about 64 bpm when I was still playing regular tennis, even at age 45. Having my heartbeat at an extra 20 bpm showed me how badly my fitness had declined.  I easily got winded from climbing a flight of stairs; I could not keep up with my grandchildren at play, and my immune system was getting weaker.)

That night I decided that I had to do something about my health! Being sedentary for years was taking its toll on my body.  I realized that my body was shutting down physically because I was not using my muscles.

I knew this was true from personal observation. You see, I have a brother who at 74 years of age is still very fit and active. He is taking part and winning badminton matches in his age group every year – even this year!  Because he had never stopped playing, his physical abilities had not deteriorated.

This made me think that perhaps I could reverse my deteriorating health if I started to exercise again. Perhaps I could also begin something anew, even though I was 75.

As I was entertaining such thoughts, something happened in Malaysia that gave me the incentive to start anew!

So, I decided that if I truly had only 3 years to live, I would try to make it the best 3 years of my life!