Do
As You Will
“As
a maxim for how to live, 'Do as you will' sounds like a recipe for
mayhem. No one would say it to a roomful of schoolchildren. But it
can be wise advice, for it appeals to the inherent wisdom in all of
us. Like diners in an 'all you can eat' restaurant, we would soon
find that too much is a bad thing, and we set our own limits when
they have not been set for us.”
David
Ross (1001 Pearls of Wisdom)
Part
of the maturing process involves overcoming our tendency toward
excess—willingly, or not. When I was younger, I could work all day,
play all night, eat and drink anything I wanted and as much as I
wanted, and get up the next day and do it all over again. I'll bet
you could too. In one's youth, the metabolism is high, digestion is
rapid, sleep is deep and sound, and the body repairs rapidly. My
doctor ex-husband used to say that young people have 'good
protoplasm'. They bounce back quickly. But that was then, and this is
now.
Nowadays,
all that high-life is a sweet memory. I can work hard in two-hour
spurts, play one or two evenings per week, and eat and drink
sparingly. If I push it beyond that, I pay. Luckily, prudence and
discretion come with aging too. The passions quiet and can be
tempered by reason. The notion of what is 'fun' changes. It's no
longer fun to down a whole bottle of wine and stay out until the wee
ones.
As
we age, thankfully, the 'do as you will' for most of us becomes, 'do
as you are able'. We learn to self-direct. We learn that pushing the
envelope results in a bloated mid-line, pain in the low back, clogs
in our arteries and bad knees. Those are all good teachers of
temperance.
But
there's another part to the 'do as you will' adage, and that is, 'do
what makes you happy'. Contentment comes in doing what makes us
happy, learning to live within our means, and being able to adapt to
the ebb and flow of life. After you've lived awhile, and gained some
wisdom and perspective, you give up the 'ain't it awful' syndrome,
and the 'I wish' yearnings, and just feel happy to be who you are,
having what you have, and doing what you do. It's the beautiful and unexpected gift of the second half of
life.
In
the spirit,
Jane
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