“Some days I can clean out a whole closet. Some days I can’t open a jar of pickles.”
My friend from church said that to me over coffee last month. She’s 76, and she has arthritis in her hands and knees.
She had been trying to declutter her house for a year. Every morning, she’d look at her list and feel bad.
On her good days, she did too much and paid for it the next day. On her hard days, she did nothing and felt guilty.
“I keep waiting for a week when I feel good every day,” she said. “It never comes.”
I understood her more than she knew. In the months after my knee replacement, I had good days and hard days, too. And I learned the same thing she was about to learn.
You don’t need a week of good days. You need the right job for the day you’re having.
Why Your Energy Changes From Day to Day
If your energy goes up and down, you’re far from alone.
Almost half of adults 65 and older have been told by a doctor that they have arthritis, according to the CDC. And arthritis is only one reason.