Good Words of Wisdom

With age comes wisdom.

My teenage-aged self would not have believed that saying. Heck, even my 20-something self would disagree.

Skipping ahead to the 40s, my older, and much wiser self, sits back and says, "aha!"

Four decades of living has changed my perspective about age, wisdom, and the important things in life.

So today I share with you, three good wisdom-filled nuggets that I've collected along the curvy, bumpy road otherwise known as my journey through life.

1. In each and every situation in life you can choose how to react. An old college friend put it simply: you can react positively, negatively, or not at all. It's a hard lesson to learn, especially if you are facing a challenge be it a job loss, an unexpected death or diagnosis, or a relationship problem - which leads me to my next words of wisdom:

2. Many people will not change how they react to you even if you are facing certain struggles. In other words, if a person always acts like a jerk, they will most likely still act like a jerk despite a change in your situation. In my case, I was expecting some people in my life to be more helpful, kind, and compassionate to us because of my chronic illness. Not so. I am learning to surround myself with people who are helpful, kind, and compassionate, and to let the others go. Members of my pulmonary support group, and also Brian, have shared this life lesson with me.

3. "It is easy to be heavy; hard to be light." a quote by British writer G.K. Chesterton as noted in the book, "The Happiness Project" by Gretchen Rubin. On her blog, Rubin explains it like this: "One mystery of happiness is why some people choose to be unhappy. One answer: It is easy to be heavy; hard to be light. And you don't get credit for being light. It looks easy and effortless. No one thinks much about you or tries to accommodate you. You get taken for granted." Having just recently finished Rubin's book, I've taken these words of wisdom to heart, and I'm trying to work on this life lesson as well.

And because it's sometimes hard to limit myself to just three good things, I offer a bonus good thing for today. It's a poem shared by my very good friend and old college roommate M, who also told me long ago not to wear my socks inside out! Enjoy!



The Dash by Linda Ellis