I am a work in progress

That's a radiolaria (holoplanktonic protozoa) and is not a work in progress. But I am.

What am I progressing to? I'm not sure. In another couple of weeks I'll be sixty-one years old. How can I be sixty-one already? I can't have lived this long and only be this far along in my life! I haven't decided what I want to be when I grow up yet!

Hmmmm, what do I want to be when I grow up? Hmmmmmmm. I guess I want to be "satisfied." Not necessarily satiated. But satisfied that I've lived as best I could, given the circumstances and the level of my education. Like most of us, I'm still learning, still growing into what I'll be when I grow up.

Parts of me have grown up and grown older. I was listening to a conversation (it was okay to do so) when an educated man was telling a friend how certain things, like Karate and maybe Tae Kwan Do, are for kids . . . and by inference, not for adults. He talked about kicks and routines, I think he called them. Kata in Tae Kwan Do. I think he thought that a "mature" body couldn't handle the kicks. Well, maybe my body can't handle the kicks, but is that a reason not to try? What happened to challenging our bodies? How will we know what we can't do if we don't try to do it? Maybe a child would get discouraged, but an adult (using the term lightly) would see the situation as a challenge. Yes, it might take an older adult longer to progress from belt to belt. So what? The younger kids can look at the 'old woman' and be encouraged. The old woman can look at the kids and try harder.

I know that my body can't do splits or cartwheels (although my 81 1/2 year old mother has cartwheeled up to her 65th birthday, I think it was). I also know that my body suffers from Fibromyalgia Syndrome. So, I'm "handicapped" but I can still play!

I am a work in progress.

I can learn karate.

I can learn Jeet Kune Do.
And I might even grow up, too.