STAYING YOUNG

Don't know who the author is, but I thought I would share this.

1.    Throw out non-essential numbers. This includes age, weight, and height. Let the doctor worry about .   
       them. That's why you pay him/her

2.   Keep only cheerful friends. The grouches pull you down.

3.   Keep Learning! Learn more about the computer, crafts, gardening,...whatever! Never let the brain idle.
      "An idle mind is the devil's workshop." The devil's name is Alzheimer's!

4.   Enjoy the simple things. When the children are young, that's all you can afford. When they're in college,
      that's all you can afford. After you retire, that's all you can afford!

5.   Laugh often, long and loud. Laugh until you gasp for breath. Laugh so much that you can be tracked in
      the store by your distinctive laughter!

6.   The tears happen. Endure, grieve, and move on. The only person who is with us our entire life, is
      ourselves. Be alive while you are alive, don't put out a mailbox on the highway of death and just wait in
      residence for your mail.

7.   Surround yourself with what you love. Whether it is family, pets, keepsakes, music, plants, hobbies,
       whatever. Your home is your refuge.

8.   Cherish your health. If it's good, preserve it. If it's unstable, improve it. If it's beyond what you can
       improve, get help.

9.   Don't take guilt trips. Take FUN trips......go tothe mall, the next county, a foreign country, but not to a
      guilty country.

10.  Tell the people you love that you love them,.....at every opportunity.

AND ALWAYS REMEMBER, LIFE is not measured by the number of breaths we take, BUT by the
MOMENTS that take our breath away!   

Garden of Life #3

The other evening I was taking a stroll around my neighborhood when I suddenly realized how fortunate I was just to be able to "walk." The human body is such a marvelous creation. As I moved along my route, I became "super" aware of my breath moving in and out of my lungs, my arms swinging rhythmically back and forth, my legs bearing and balancing my weight, and my feet padding softly on the pavement.

As I moved along to my own inner beat, memories of various movies flickered through my mind; final scenes from "Flashdance," "Ice Castles" and "Dirty Dancing" -- how "moving" they were both physically and emotionally. As if to reaffirm my observations, that evening I saw the 1977 movie "The Turning Point," a story of ballet, life and decisions starring Shirley MacClain, Anne Bancroft and Mikhail Baryshnikov. I swear Mikhail never just "danced," he defied gravity and "flew."

Now the majority of us will never, in our wildest dreams, be Baryshnikovs, but when you get right down to it, just "walking" is a miracle and shouldn't be taken for granted. There are folks who are unable to do even that.

So, have you enjoyed a walk today?

Until next time. . . remember the roses.