A brief piece of wisdom -- being never, never satisfied with your situation prolongs suffering and wastes vital life. Too many seem to look for reasons to be down, disheartened, and plain miserable instead of accepting simple pleasures and modest living. Challenges involving money, relationships, and failing health are just that -- normal parts of aging. Death of the spirit -- always complaining -- leads no where. I am impressed at how many surviving chronic situations find ways to be happy. God bless them.
I truly believe acceptance of your own unfortunate situations sustains so many others, many of whom are afflicted with troubles far beyond your own infirmities. Lean to accept any weakened condition with grace and, instead promise not to complain but rather to do things to lighten the load of others daily. This is the true measure of your good life, not accepting life's ever-nagging pains and discomforts as character assassins.
Oh, I understand regret, but you control your life being sixteen or ninety-six. By control, I mean you set your views and your perspectives yourself. Take time to "smell the roses" and consider your life -- no matter its condition -- because it is a gift from God to be lived to the fullest possible extent. I find helping others extremely gratifying and deadly to self-pity. Reach out and help others: the most minute assistance brightens another's day and leaves lasting good impressions of your own willingness to stretch your endurance.
Who suffers from what? Diseases? Conditions? Accidents? Failed relationships? At my age, everyone has some enormous stones in their pathways. You can complain about how difficult they are to contend with and adjust to, or you can move them with love and care. Big. life-threatening boulders require help -- from friends, from family, and from physicians; however, the your human will acting with the grace of God is the most powerful force -- a bulldozer, if you will.
Therein lies your challenge for acceptance, teamwork, and attitude. Your own belief in caring for others works wonders to blast away your own impediments from your life. And, remember, if the task is too large for temporal tools to effect results, belief in yourself and in God works wonders. Even failure -- dying? -- can be sustainable to your own good nature, grace, and redemption. No time for the "bitch," the regret, the "poor-little-old me" attitude. The best medicine for your condition is to continue to help others, make them happy, and live a remainder of a thankful life until your last breath. You may be resilient or perhaps a coincidental victim of bad circumstance. Swallow it and make plans to continue to put smiles on faces and hope in hearts. Your life journey may brighten as you walk the last mile. Humans help others just as much with good words as they do with good deeds.
I concede that some people are just too ill to practice compliance with grace and love, but look at how many "Doomsdayers" bring down others with awful tales of their own sicknesses and unfortunate accidents. I don't want to do that. I seek to lift their spirits. Old folks often speak about each other's illnesses and wind up "offering too much 'so-sorrying,'" "voicing so much unconscionable pity," and even scheming to blame something or somebody else for demises. Growing old inevitably involves accepting the pains and discomfort, and resisting the temptation to bray sour attitudes about what they can no longer do. Aging is a a cruel, yet acceptable human understanding. All will some day find seemingly bottomless pits that cause nothing but emotional distress, anger, and even unbearable sadness. Self-pity simply drives you ever deeper in the well of despair.
What to do? Fight the powers of relentless old age by accepting your own fate and, instead, helping others overcome their own problems -- be they physical or mental health issues, infirmity, loneliness, or just plain and simple regret. Try ... simply try ... to put your own issues aside and offer assistance. Phone calls, visits, and even the most basic acknowledgement of someone else's presence in a person's life can work miracles in their lives of both givers and receivers. Whether recovery is in their future, it matters little. Mother nature and the Man Upstairs deal with life-giving gifts. You and I are called upon to care and nurture human relationships on planet Earth. Please, do just one favor for a needy friend and experience your own good will. Love is a power that knows no limits. Love never dies. However, life, as we know it on Earth, does end for all of us, yet we can produce better results for the planet by cutting down on our own selfish human drive to focus solely on our own woes and sad conditions of our own tight-close-family group.
‘Solitude’: A Poem by Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Laugh, and the world laughs with you;
Weep, and you weep alone;
For the sad old earth must borrow its mirth,
But has trouble enough of its own.
Sing, and the hills will answer;
Sigh, it is lost on the air;
The echoes bound to a joyful sound,
But shrink from voicing care.
Rejoice, and men will seek you;
Grieve, and they turn and go;
They want full measure of all your pleasure,
But they do not need your woe.
Be glad, and your friends are many;
Be sad, and you lose them all,—
There are none to decline your nectared wine,
But alone you must drink life’s gall.
Feast, and your halls are crowded;
Fast, and the world goes by.
Succeed and give, and it helps you live,
But no man can help you die.
There is room in the halls of pleasure
For a large and lordly train,
But one by one we must all file on
Through the narrow aisles of pain.
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