My wife took a picture of me the other day, walking down the sidewalk holding a grandson’s hand. A “sweet” picture perhaps, except for my posture. Head bent, looking down, an old man’s posture. It was a bit startling. I asked if I often walked like that and the answer was affirmative.

I realize there are some safety issues such a posture might address. As such, I will likely never kill a scooting lizard, step in a pile of poop, or break my mother’s back. But I’ll also not see the sky, the feathered wildlife in the trees, the shiny new sports car, and I may well walk into a pole. So I resolved to walk with my head up.

We went for a beach walk and head up works well for watching pelicans, ships on the horizon and beautiful beach homes. However, it doesn’t prevent walking on shells, rocks, or other debris that hurt my feet. There must be a happy medium, and I am intent on finding it.

Perhaps I hold my head up, that invisible yoga string pulling the top of my head to the clouds while allowing my eyeballs to drop occasionally to scout for pending obstacles in my path. Of course this won’t ensure the safety of darting lizards, but perhaps they too need to keep a heads up attitude when they see me coming.

Sometimes old people just get bent by many years of gravitational pull, but as long as it’s something I can in some small way control, then so be it! It’s heads up for me moving forward!