Well, imagine that: experts in life, sociology, human health have concluded that people need to more actively claim their lives. Offering formulas that declare in essence, what's old is new again. Which is to say that while there's place for leisure in our lives, there's also room for exercising brain and muscle as we age to ensure ... how to put it? ... that we do age and live gracefully.

Take nothing for granted. While we're young and hale we won't always be that way. But we're so busy with the lives we've made that no one either has the time/opportunity or will to peer into a future we can't really imagine and don't really care all that much about. It's the present that counts, the future will look after itself. 

So if we decide to shed some personal agency in responsibility to ourselves because it's pleasant to have others do things for us, and it's satisfying to eat whatever we want whenever we want to, and it seems to make more sense to be comfortable slouching back on a sofa to watch  flicks, well so be it.

Remember that old adage, use it or lose it? A flippant hint at what's to come if the brain and the musculature are neglected. Of course we could always develop good habits, like considering a walk around the block as a daily ritual could be a commitment to the future.

And how about just picking up some good books and starting a personal library with an ambition to read them all and acquire more that you intend to read, and will. Instead of say, watching television series? Or incorporating reading into the habit of turning on the television too often? You could even write your own dramas, starting a commitment to keeping a daily diary to record what happens during the course of a day, how you feel about things, what you've observed. It takes thought and thought exercises the brain and becomes food for introspection and curiosity.

Cooking for oneself, now that's a challenge. Instead of picking up processed stuff and stuffing it into your gut to create unwholesome biome, gather elemental foodstuffs and learn how to throw them together. Nothing necessarily complicated, start easy and let culinary curiosity take over from there. Please your taste buds as well as your gut health and your mood.

Get out and exercise, there's a whole world of nature out there, waiting to be discovered, shared and appreciated. Hmm, but not today. It's raining. Heavily. I've been cleaning the house most of the day. Irving cut the grass just before the rain began; good timing. I took the puppies out to the backyard before rain came pelting down, and it's the closest they'll come to being out today.

When I finished washing the last floor and they were set free from the family room, they were boisterous with expectation, following me upstairs as I changed, demanding to be noticed, happy as two little larks flying through the sky. They actually spontaneously became two little larks flying through the bedroom, the bathroom, down the hall after one another in an exercise of startling acrobatics.

They were delirious with expectation. Expecting a good long ravine hike, and a fresh vegetable salad. The hike was denied them, the salad extra large and gobbled in a wink. The house is dark and rain-humid. There's always things to do, even for Jackie and Jillie who understand perfectly why there's no walk; a glance out the sliding door tells all.