macular degeneration, macular, diagnosis A Life Worth Living – My Macular Degeneration Journey/Journal

A Life Worth Living

Friday morning. We have gotten to the end of another week. Yippee!

My attitude towards work is a dialectic. (Back to teaching DBT so I am thinking along those lines.) The woman who fought hard to get back to work is the same one who says TGIF.

I sometimes wonder about myself. When the alarm goes off entirely too early, my first thought is “There has got to be a better way.” Could that be true? Is there a better way?

The purpose of DBT, as I discussed, is to have a life worth living. What do I consider – or what do you consider – to be a life worth living?

Speaking for myself, physical health is the bedrock. Someone a million years ago said that “if you don’t have your health, you don’t have anything”. I believe him. I exercise and use the body. That component of my life will have to stay.

Socialization is absolutely necessary for me. I go a little crazy when I am not out and about. I have the exercise community. Friends. I have people at work. I imagine I could get away with leaving my jobs and those people but I know I would have to find extra socialization opportunities. Maybe volunteer.

A life worth living to me also means the ability to go different places and have different experiences. That means not only having health but having money. I could probably get away with not working but my friend the accountant keeps talking to me about inflation and the shrinking value of the dollar. Would I have enough money to not only keep us in the style to which we have become accustomed but also to fund my wanderlust and love of the challenge?

Never knew it but I may be a ‘vitalist’. (I always thought people were right when they said I was a nut!). Found a quote I like: “Without being aware, I think I was being indoctrinated into what was called vitalism,the idea that what makes life worth living, the good life, consists of accepting challenges, solving problems,discovery, personal growth, personal change.” – Edmund Phelps. (economist, Nobel prize winner – don’t worry. I looked it up.)

I am a bulldog. I am relentless. I get a serious kick out of the quest. Right now most of those challenges come from work. I might be able to find some in this work, what is looking more and more like education and advocacy for AMD folks, but I am not sure it would be enough.

Add to all of that needs to continue to learn, to be in nature and to be with animals and you have the elements of my life worth living. Right now that list is telling me I should continue to work. Later, when I cannot work any longer, it will be a guide to structuring what I want in my ‘new’ life.

Here come the thought questions:

What constitutes your life worth living?
How can you have those things even with AMD, maybe blindness?

Think about it.

Next: SOS

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