I’m 81 years old. My body never lets me forget. I’ve had a triple bypass. I’m diabetic. I have kidney problems. I suffer hypertension. Etc. Etc. But life goes on.

At my age, I’ve come to realize that my life now is a series of small victories. Let me explain by giving you some examples.

1. Seven years ago, my wife and I did the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage. This involved walking for 11 days on rocky mountains, muddy forests, and sometimes dangerous terrain. We survived.

Needless to say, I can’t do that anymore.

However, I now brisk walk a modest 35 minutes every day except Sunday around our village. Not every person my age can do that. That’s one example of a small victory.

Here are others:

2. I’ve grown clumsy and tend to drop things. But I can still bend down to pick up whatever it is I’ve dropped without asking assistance from anybody.

3. When I was active in show business, I had no problem memorizing kilometric lines for a scene. Now I tend to forget simple names of people, sometimes even of relatives. From what I’ve read, this is fairly common to seniors. But give me a day or two and chances are they will come back to me.

4. My eyesight is good. I don’t have to wear glasses, not even to read small print.

5. Eventually, I will probably need a wheelchair to move around. But right now, I don’t even use a cane. And I don’t need someone to hold my elbow for support.

6. Unlike other seniors I know, I don’t have to sit down when I take a shower.

7. When I need something that requires going up and down the stairs, I make it a point to do it myself. This forms part of my exercise for the day.

8. I don’t have a problem putting on my pants. But I do have to be leaning on something—a small price to pay. Otherwise, I’d probably get tangled up and fall down.

9. I can still play at least nine holes of golf—not very well, but then I was never really good at it. And now I use a cart.

10. The mere fact that I’m writing this is another small victory for me. It takes me away from just sitting around, watching TV or Netflix the whole day.

In retrospect, all these little victories give me a positive outlook on my life. I realize how blessed I am and that I have a lot of things to be thankful for. It beats whining and complaining every time something doesn’t come my way.

How about you? What are YOUR small victories? —CONTRIBUTED