This past summer, our cabin neighbor, Ernie, was showing us a beautiful new John Deere tractor he had just purchased. It came with four-wheel drive, a full cab, a front-end loader, and a grader – pretty cool. I like tractors. Growing up on a farm, I was driving our tractor by the time I was eight years old, but it was an ancient one with worn paint, a metal seat, and missing cowl parts. Watching Ernie show us around his shiny new John Deere had me a touch envious, but it’s not for the reasons you may be thinking.

Ernie happens to be 95 years old – a young 95. His positive outlook on the years to come had me reevaluating my sometimes-silly worries. Am I living for the day and looking forward to the future? Or am I looking for a safe place to park my car at the end of the road, so to speak? All this got me thinking, which admittedly, isn’t always a good thing. I can almost hear my wife lament, “Oh, no. You’re not thinking again, are you? You won’t try dusting the house with the leaf blower again, will you?” I suspect Einstein didn’t have to put up with such, but I digress.

As I was saying, Ernie’s outlook got me thinking of other folks who, in later years, continue with their work, hobbies, or dreams with little concession to age. A television report a while back featured a fellow who worked for seventy years selling shoes and was still doing so. His occupation and the people he met were his life passion. How fortunate he is. Retirement for my friend, Jeanne O’Melia, has included jumping off tall cliffs on Namakan Lake, creating works of art, dancing, volunteering, or boating about on the lake with her husband, Dave, to watch sunsets. A CBS report this spring featured a couple of women living near the century mark who achieved items on their bucket lists – one by driving a NASCAR race car at 130 mph and the other by jumping out of a perfectly operating airplane to ski-dive.

I once had an appetite for daring things, including skydiving, but fortunately, I got over it. It wasn’t difficult. Like Jeanne, I too jumped off a 30-foot cliff on Namakan Lake. It wasn’t a bucket list thing, but it quenched any thirst I had for being a daredevil. I don’t have a bucket list, actually, but if I did, it wouldn’t have much of a wow factor. I’d rather read a book on a beach than surf a ten-foot curl. I’d rather take a relaxing sauna than an ice-bucket challenge. I’d rather look at the Grand Canyon than hike it. I even got rather excited a couple of years ago when we bought a new recliner from Northern Comfort Company. The thing still trips my trigger.

A point to be made of all this is that one should enjoy, that is, truly appreciate our time on this earth whether it be selling shoes, a comfortable chair, a death-defying jump, or buying a tractor. Certainly, worry has its place, but appreciation is a powerful force to combat it. I’m with Ernie.

Leo is retired and lives in rural Cook with his wife, Lindy. He is the author of three books, She Won’t Mow the Daisies, The Cabin Experience, and Life Over Easy. Leo can be contacted by email at llwilenius@gmail.com.