A shorter "eight great realizations"

One can find enough to do for a lifetime in a few short phrases: be undesiring, be content, be tranquil, be practicing, be mindful, be meditative, be discerning, be steadfast.

-- shonin 

But live

 As shonin approaches 77, she takes stock of her intellect and finds it ... gummy. The most one can hope for is that this is a peaks-and troughs experience, and she's going through a trough. But she knows, by interior inquiry more than from doctors, who tend to wave her off with talk of sleep apnea, that she's not getting enough brain food by day as well as night. She spends increasing time with her cannula, whiffing concentrated oxygen, and watches earnest videos by younger and brighter folks as the days wear on.

When there is some energy, she walks, cooks, gathers herbs and forbs for tea, plays at being doshi (altar officiant) for a tiny sangha, gardens. During the last peak, she read aloud some poems to YouTube.

It's a long, slow spring with April frosts, confusing for plants that have seen temps as high as 80F already. But she, and they, persist.

After all, what is there for the living to do, but live? 

-- shonin