I'VE SLOWED DOWN

 

As I’ve grown a little older…when I stop to look around

I see life moves as fast as it always has…but it’s me who has slowed down.

As I climb the ladder of life…each year reaching a new rung…

I’m slowed by knees and eyes and ears 

that don’t work as well as they did when I was young.

“You can’t run on me anymore!”

That’s what my knees would say if my knees could talk.

So instead of running from place to place…I’ve been forced to walk.

And while I’m walking 

because my eyes don’t see as clearly as they used to see

I’m forced to walk a little slower and sometimes stop…

to see what I want to see. 

Because my hearing over the years has started to fade away

I have to look more people in the eye and listen more carefully

to what they have to say.

But…since I have to walk more slowly, 

and look and listen more carefully to the world around me…

I find I have the time to enjoy a little more 

the people and the beauty that surrounds me.

Which makes me wonder about all the beauty I might have missed…

all the wonder

all the fun…

back when I had eyes and ears that worked much better…

atop knees on which I’d run.