Life Is Precious And Health Is Fragile

Life is precious and our health is so fragile. Don’t waste a single moment of your life when you can enjoy both. So many people take their health for granted and think they will live forever, and be forever young.

I wish that were true, we all do. I was able to walk down to nearby Ocean Beach in San Francisco today because it was a warm for SF 68 degrees out. I went last Sunday too, and I am so glad I did both times.

The beach is always a peaceful place to go for me. There are families and children and dogs all frolicking around. Because of the weird tides and the very cold water temperature, Ocean Beach is not really a swimmer’s beach.

There are signs posted everywhere warning about rip tides, so except for hardy surfers and excited children, most people don’t even try to swim. Watchful parents allow the children to splash around in the shallower waters, and they get wet and come back and build sand castles and dig holes on the beach.

But you can still enjoy walking on the soft sand, so different from the harsh concrete sidewalks we traverse every day.

You can still hear the crashing, pounding surf as the waves hit the beach in their inexorable journey from who knows where. You can still feel the warm sun on your face, gaze out over the horizon, and wonder what is on the other side of the ocean.

My section of the beach is leash-free, so it is a great place for dogs to romp and play with each other and race full out along the sand. Most owners throw a green tennis ball out into the edges of the blue water, and the dogs race across the yellow sand excitedly to fetch them back.

The dogs don’t care about the posted warning signs about the rip tide and don’t care if they get soaked. They are single-minded in the pursuit of their target and bring the tennis balls proudly back to their owners, ready to go again. And the owners all enjoy this beach time ritual.

It is a shared bond between both of them. The dogs are cooped up in their owner’s homes or apartments all week long while their owners are cooped up at work in their offices or cubicles, only getting out for their daily walks and always being leashed together.

But at the beach, they have freedom. They have the freedom to race full speed in pursuit of a target or just race around as fast as they can, stretching muscles they seldom get to use but so obviously enjoy.

The scents alone drive them wild with joy and exuberance. Scientists estimate dogs have a sense of smell over 10,000 times more powerful than humans. If you ever want to see a happy dog, just take them to the beach.

The section of beach blocks from my apartment stretches out for several miles, and even the biggest of dogs can get all that tension and stress out of their muscles by running as fast as they can run. They can race up and down the beach for as long as they want until they are satisfied.

We can all learn a lesson from these happy dogs. They are healthy, and they are enjoying life to the fullest. They are all so energetic and don’t think twice about hurting themselves or fret about blowing out a knee.

They are living in the moment, as we all should. They are enjoying the freedom to be themselves, as we all should. They are living their lives to the fullest, as we all should.

Life is precious, and health is so fragile. Don’t put off doing fun things sometimes. Get outside and do fun things as often as possible. The simple pleasures are the best. Health is a gift, use it wisely.

And do it while you still can, before the aches and pains of daily life add up to some chronic condition. Before something you never thought could happen to you strikes or slows you down and you are no longer able to enjoy these simple freedoms.

I think the dogs are really onto something here…

At the beach, it’s a dog’s world.