Asked to describe the most physically challenging task I ever completed, I thought back over a lifetime to see what I could remember. A few things came to mind but I had a hard time picking the most challenging.

As a Boy Scout working on the life-saving merit badge, I found the toughest requirement was to retrieve a ten-pound rock in a sack from the bottom of an eight-foot deep pool and return it to shore without drowning myself. For a skinny, fourteen year old kid who’d sink to the bottom with his lungs inflated this was a major challenge.

In a high school football game my assignment in the line was to take a guard out of the play. I thought it a fair task until the teams lined up for the play. My opponent outweighed me by at least forty pounds. Most of the forty pounds was fat but that was hard to move aside when he was coming straight at me. It helped that at least I was a little faster than he. In those days the team played both offense and defense, so there was no resting time when the ball changed hands so my challenge remained for the whole game.

A challenge I remember vividly happened on a hot day in August. It might be called a day in the hay. It was a day that no matter how many hours it lasted it was an eternity. One man rode a tractor up and down the field pulling a hay rake and leaving rows of dry hay to be hauled to the barn. Then there were we peons with pitchforks following while loading hay onto a wagon. The work was easy when the wagon was nearly empty but once it was nearly full it was hell. The fork full of hay had to be hoisted high above our heads and the breeze always blew into our faces depositing chaff down our backs. It got under our shirts and stuck to sweat like barnacles to a ship. Once full, a second wagon arrived on the scene for more. Never has a cool shower been more welcome than after that challenge.

I could mention other tasks such as digging through four-foot snow drifts on a minus ten degree morning to get my car out of the garage, but a more recent task has been a much greater physical challenge. I once got a daily newspaper, mostly for the comics and the crossword puzzles I think. I used to love to tend my garden when I could tell a weed from my plantings. I longed to hike mountain trails and see the panorama across valleys. I enjoyed driving my car especially on little traveled roads new to me. Stage productions, once a delight, appear as shadows moving on stage. My most physically challenging task is coping with my loss of sight.

I’ve never been a very orderly person, a trait I’m working on but have a long way to go. It’s easy to lose things that are out of place. I have trouble recognizing people and it’s embarrassing to ask their names time after time.

Nevertheless I have many reasons to be thankful. I see a splash of red outside. If I go out to have a close look I can see the shape of the color, big blossoms of amaryllis. I can hear the songs of birds. I can read recorded books provided by the library. I car enjoy the music of an orchestra even though I can’t see the players. Most importantly, people are generally helpful.

Of tasks that I have completed, which was the most physically challenging, I don’t really know. I believe my most physically challenging task is not complete, but I’m still working on it, and thankful for all the help I get.