When Life Happens…

The Art of Living Longer – When Life Happens…     

If you’ve been following my blogs, you know that I recently left a nearly-ten-year relationship, moved to a whole new part of South Florida and have felt like a teen-ager with my life a blank page laid out before me, waiting for me to choose how the next chapters will unfold.

I was on a cloud… and then life happened.  A week after moving in my son and his family (including my 3-year old granddaughter) needed shelter so they and their dog (temporarily) moved into my sweet new space.

Two weeks passed and, kaboom… life happened even bigger. A friend was diagnosed with lung cancer.  One week later, a beloved friend passed and then two days later another very dear friend, a healer, was diagnosed to be in stage 4 colon cancer.  It rocked the core of my being.  It threw me way off balance.  But life had more in store for me and my circle… another friend is at the Mayo Clinic having heart valve surgery and yet another very close friend nearly died of heart failure but for the synchronicity of her visiting her cardiologist brother!

It was like being hit by a tidal wave, and then another and another.  Finding balance was hard. By all accounts I am a very spiritual person, meaning I believe there is more to our existence than what we can see, but all of these life-threatening calamities were hard to explain. Why do bad things happen to good people?

These events have served to reinforce what I’ve been stressing these past few years. When we are born there is only one thing for sure and that is that we will die.  Life is a death sentence. You can evade taxes.  You can’t evade death! We don’t know our expiration date so why waste what time we have being angry, resentful, self-pitying or sad?

My son, my friends… was this all a burden or a blessing? The distinction was up to me and I choose to see it all as a blessing. These events have led me to the inescapable conclusion that I am committed to saying yes to life. I am committed to forgiving and letting go and taking time to de-stress because I don’t know how long I have here so I am making the choice to grab hold of life, putting myself on the line to love and be loved and make the most of the time I have here with the people I care about. As long as I am breathing, I can find ways to lovingly and happily live life.

Be a Savvy Senior. Make the choice to live feeling happy, not crappy! Seek out happy friends, love them and see the good in life. It’s a choice that will serve you well… even when life happens.

Anne Goldberg, The Savvy Senior, has a mission to help seniors know they are old enough to have a past and young enough to have a future. Her vision is to create an army of senior volunteers bringing their wisdom and experience back to the community. She helps seniors live into their future with vitality by teaching them how to use computers; with conferences & workshops on The Art of Living Longer ; with decluttering & organizing; and with “Tell Your Story Videos”, preserving the stories & wisdom of your life for future generations.www.SavvySeniorServices.com
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