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The Big Black Dog Message Board & Chat Room TBBD :: Self Help :: In Our Own Words - writing to survive
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Getting Older
by greasemonkey on Mon Jun 01, 2009 6:01 pm
Written By Regina Brett,
90 years old,of The Plain Dealer,
Cleveland , Ohio
To celebrate growing older, I once wrote the 45 lessons life taught me.
It is the most requested column I've ever written. My odometer rolled over to 90 in August, so here is the column once more:
1. Life isn't fair, but it's still good.
2. When in doubt, just take the next small step.
3. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone.
4. Your job won't take care of you when you are sick. Your friends and parents will. Stay in touch.
5. Pay off your credit cards every month.
6. You don't have to win every argument. Agree to disagree.
7. Cry with someone. It's more healing than crying alone.
8. It's OK to get angry with God. He can take it.
9. Save for retirement starting with your first paycheck.
10. When it comes to chocolate, resistance is futile.
11. Make peace with your past so it won't screw up the present.
12. It's OK to let your children see you cry.
13. Don't compare your life to others. You have no idea what their journey is all about.
14. If a relationship has to be a secret, you shouldn't be in it.
15. Everything can change in the blink of an eye. But don't worry; God never blinks.
16. Take a deep breath. It calms the mind.
17. Get rid of anything that isn't useful, beautiful or joyful.
18. Whatever doesn't kill you really does make you stronger.
19. It's never too late to have a happy childhood. But the second one is up to you and no one else.
20. When it comes to going after what you love in life, don't take no for an answer.
21. Burn the candles, use the nice sheets, wear the fancy lingerie. Don't save it for a special occasion. Today is special.
22. Over prepare, then go with the flow.
23. Be eccentric now. Don't wait for old age to wear purple.
24. The most important sex organ is the brain.
25 No one is in charge of your happiness but you.
26. Frame every so-called disaster with these words 'In five years, will this matter?'
27 Always choose life.
28. Forgive everyone everything.
29. What other people think of you is none of your business.
30. Time heals almost everything. Give time time.
31. However good or bad a situation is, it will change.
32. Don't take yourself so seriously. No one else does.
33. Believe in miracles.
34. God loves you because of who God is, not because of anything you did or didn't do.
35. Don't audit life. Show up and make the most of it now.
36. Growing old beats the alternative -- dying young.
37. Your children get only one childhood.
38. All that truly matters in the end is that you loved.
39. Get outside every day. Miracles are waiting everywhere.
40. If we all threw our problems in a pile and saw everyone else's, we'd grab ours back.
41. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need.
42. The best is yet to come.
43. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.
44. Yield.
45. Life isn't tied with a bow, but it's still a gift.
90 years old,of The Plain Dealer,
Cleveland , Ohio
To celebrate growing older, I once wrote the 45 lessons life taught me.
It is the most requested column I've ever written. My odometer rolled over to 90 in August, so here is the column once more:
1. Life isn't fair, but it's still good.
2. When in doubt, just take the next small step.
3. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone.
4. Your job won't take care of you when you are sick. Your friends and parents will. Stay in touch.
5. Pay off your credit cards every month.
6. You don't have to win every argument. Agree to disagree.
7. Cry with someone. It's more healing than crying alone.
8. It's OK to get angry with God. He can take it.
9. Save for retirement starting with your first paycheck.
10. When it comes to chocolate, resistance is futile.
11. Make peace with your past so it won't screw up the present.
12. It's OK to let your children see you cry.
13. Don't compare your life to others. You have no idea what their journey is all about.
14. If a relationship has to be a secret, you shouldn't be in it.
15. Everything can change in the blink of an eye. But don't worry; God never blinks.
16. Take a deep breath. It calms the mind.
17. Get rid of anything that isn't useful, beautiful or joyful.
18. Whatever doesn't kill you really does make you stronger.
19. It's never too late to have a happy childhood. But the second one is up to you and no one else.
20. When it comes to going after what you love in life, don't take no for an answer.
21. Burn the candles, use the nice sheets, wear the fancy lingerie. Don't save it for a special occasion. Today is special.
22. Over prepare, then go with the flow.
23. Be eccentric now. Don't wait for old age to wear purple.
24. The most important sex organ is the brain.
25 No one is in charge of your happiness but you.
26. Frame every so-called disaster with these words 'In five years, will this matter?'
27 Always choose life.
28. Forgive everyone everything.
29. What other people think of you is none of your business.
30. Time heals almost everything. Give time time.
31. However good or bad a situation is, it will change.
32. Don't take yourself so seriously. No one else does.
33. Believe in miracles.
34. God loves you because of who God is, not because of anything you did or didn't do.
35. Don't audit life. Show up and make the most of it now.
36. Growing old beats the alternative -- dying young.
37. Your children get only one childhood.
38. All that truly matters in the end is that you loved.
39. Get outside every day. Miracles are waiting everywhere.
40. If we all threw our problems in a pile and saw everyone else's, we'd grab ours back.
41. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need.
42. The best is yet to come.
43. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.
44. Yield.
45. Life isn't tied with a bow, but it's still a gift.
greasemonkey- Number of posts: 918
Location: -
Registration date: 2008-09-15
Guest- Guest
Re: Getting Older
by Guest on Wed Jun 03, 2009 11:52 am
I have cut and pasted it onto word, I hope you don't mind,
Guest- Guest
Re: Getting Older
by Guest on Wed Jun 03, 2009 12:11 pm
by the way it is now on our office toilet doors...I mean to say gives us something to read when we are doing ... 'nothing'...
Guest- Guest
Re: Getting Older
by greasemonkey on Wed Jun 03, 2009 3:45 pm
toilets are the best place
to Work something Out!
Suppose you heard about the constipated mathmetician????
S(H)e worked it out with a pencil
to Work something Out!
Suppose you heard about the constipated mathmetician????
S(H)e worked it out with a pencil
greasemonkey- Number of posts: 918
Location: -
Registration date: 2008-09-15
Re: Getting Older
by Guest on Wed Jun 03, 2009 7:08 pm
Hey I constantly hear that joke about us accountants too!! 
Guest- Guest
Re: Getting Older
by greasemonkey on Wed Jun 03, 2009 9:10 pm
Did you know
ACCOUNTANTS are the most DIFFICULT
to hypnotise?
ACCOUNTANTS are the most DIFFICULT
to hypnotise?
greasemonkey- Number of posts: 918
Location: -
Registration date: 2008-09-15
greasemonkey- Number of posts: 918
Location: -
Registration date: 2008-09-15
Re: Getting Older
by Guest on Wed Jun 03, 2009 10:15 pm
oh ..haha smart arse.
... oh I just wet myself laughing over THAT ONE!
... oh I just wet myself laughing over THAT ONE!
Guest- Guest
greasemonkey- Number of posts: 918
Location: -
Registration date: 2008-09-15
Re: Getting Older
by greasemonkey on Thu Jun 04, 2009 2:09 pm
Cry with someone. It's more healing than crying alone.
The connection we make after tears brings us right into the Moment in the Real World,
when we are with someone.
Mostly people retreat into their minds,having cried alone.
People CRAVE togetherness.
They want to feel real and apart of this true life.
If we stay in our minds and continue-on singularly and apart from Humanity,
we wont ever know the true meaning of life!
'And what is that?' I ask of myself and hear a bird nearby, twittering gayley without reason.
To be here in totality is My reason for Life.
I have found that mind is miraculous and can do things exceptionally well,
and also Badly at times.
Mind also sheilds us from the real-world (if we rely on it)
and dont come clear as day out of it,
and into the Warm Sun of the Real-World.
The connection we make after tears brings us right into the Moment in the Real World,
when we are with someone.
Mostly people retreat into their minds,having cried alone.
People CRAVE togetherness.
They want to feel real and apart of this true life.
If we stay in our minds and continue-on singularly and apart from Humanity,
we wont ever know the true meaning of life!
'And what is that?' I ask of myself and hear a bird nearby, twittering gayley without reason.
To be here in totality is My reason for Life.
I have found that mind is miraculous and can do things exceptionally well,
and also Badly at times.
Mind also sheilds us from the real-world (if we rely on it)
and dont come clear as day out of it,
and into the Warm Sun of the Real-World.
greasemonkey- Number of posts: 918
Location: -
Registration date: 2008-09-15
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