Take Care

We say it as a parting statement, “Take Care” short for “Take Care of Yourself”. It is a charming and thoughtful phrase of good health to you and yours.

Do we know how to take care of ourselves? And more importantly, do we take care of ourselves?

In our youth, our elders try to protect us from harm by wrapping us up in the cold or warning us about danger, but we still discard layers as we run around in the snow or skid on that hill with scraps and bruises.

But in the end, our mom sends us to bed and puts a wash cloth on our head when there is a fever or makes us drink strange concoctions when we are sick or bandages our wounds sealed with a kiss to make the boo-boos go away.

And when pains become more than the usual means can handle, we are delivered to a doctor for a few minutes of strange questions and poking and prodding before we get a shot.

Then when that doesn’t solve the problem, we are rushed to a large building with lots of rooms like a hotel, but they only have beds in them. Stripped down and laid on a rolling cart, we are wheeled into a bright room and told to breath in some gas so we will sleep only to awaken in a groggy fog and a pain in our stomach where we find out later one of those masked figures cut us open and removed part of our body.

Later in life, we find that special someone who will care for each other through sickness and in health; someone who will feed the strange potions and take your temperature and pull up the covers while giving you tender loving care.

So are we really taking care of ourselves or taking care of each other?

We know what to do. The government and health commission reports and fitness gurus preach proper eating habits and exercise, then we watch for hour’s flashy ads promoting fatty, greasy, cheesy, overstuffed potions of junk with access on every corner. Our palettes become accustomed to sugar and salt and fat wrapped in starch.

And every year we begin by resolving we will eat better and exercise more, but we buy elastic clothing and sit with the remote hoping the shortness of breath or the pains in the joints or the ever-present fatigue will just go away.

In our waning years, there are organizations full of qualified medical and physical fitness and nutritional and even psychological experts who for a fee will take care of you when the family cannot. Assisted living facilities offering room and board with meals and activities to give a quality of life, as we grow older. It is great to know these professionals will make ever effort to keep you alive as long as the insurance can pay for it.

Yet some cannot afford such luxuries or do not want to prolong the inevitable. We live by our own meals when hungry, exercise when desired and rest when tired.

For in the end, we have only ourselves to take care of.