Most of us like to live life to the full. We like to experience as many different events as we can. We often write out explicit ‘bucket lists’ and then work to tick off each milestone as it occurs, giving us a sense of how complete our lives have been.

I suppose I’m no different in that regard. Fortunately, there are many things I’ve already ticked off that I’m pretty pleased about achieving. Travelling. Living overseas. Marriage. Parenthood. Writing and publishing my own stories. All of these are pretty big ones as far as I’m concerned.

Then again, there are a bunch of other things that most of us never want to experience. I don’t want to go into the specifics as many of them are pretty horrific. And fortunately, most of them are not inevitable. Some can be eliminated by living your life well, although there are others you can do little about and may be lucky or unlucky.

But there are many less positive experiences you can’t really avoid. As we get older, our bodies start to behave less in the way we’d like them to, and eventually that catches up with us.

In that department, I suppose I’ve been pretty lucky. I’ve reached a certain age (not telling) where my body has held up pretty well. I’ve done my best to help it by eating well and exercising, but eventually time is going to tell.

Which is my round about way of saying I’ve just reached a milestone all of us achieve if we live long enough, but which I’ve been in no hurry to get to. I’ve just had my first stay in a hospital.

I don’t want to make too big a deal about it. I know lots of people spend time in hospital for conditions far more serious than my own. But still, it was enough to give myself pause. The condition I had (which I don’t want to go into) was serious enough. It was a pretty strong message that I’m not going to be around forever, and that even my health is no longer a given.

I’m back home and back at work now. Still a bit tender, but otherwise getting on with things. But as I get through from day to day, there’s definitely a little voice in my head, reminding me about the milestones still to be ticked off. Some of them are good ones, and some less so. I hope that, at least for now, I can focus on the former.