Sadly, things happen to remind myself sometimes to not "sweat the small stuff". An old friend from over 50 years ago, who I had reconnected with a few years back, died yesterday. When we reconnected again it was if we had talked a day ago, not over 50 years ago. I had actually dated his wife before he met her, and had remained friends with her as well. Mark had a heart transplant over 10 years ago, and was super careful as he was more vulnerable to everything due to the immunosuppressant drugs he had to take. But a minor seeming fall led to a wound that would not heal on his leg and things went downhill from there. It seemed he might lose the leg, which seemed bad enough, but I was unprepared for the news from his wife that he had died. He's not the first of my old crowd to pass on, and of course will not be the last. So here I am feeling crappy while I struggle with a toothache, and my torn rotator cuffs in both shoulders, lamenting that the shoulder problems in part led me to have to give up my Honda Goldwing. I found I lost sleep last night over worries about my youngest son and his two little boys. I was a bit down in the dumps over watching my modest investments dip yet again as the market had a bad day. And then I found out about my friend dying and it reminded me that all the other stuff is pretty meaningless in comparison.
I recall a resident in one of the nursing homes that I managed during my second career as a nursing home administrator and VP of operations for a large non profit healthcare corporations. I would always try to spend a few minutes visiting her when I went to the facility where she lived, which I did about once or twice a month. She was 106 at my last visit there, and totally unimpaired mentally. Although physically pretty limited due to severe and crippling arthritis and some other ailments, she had a positive attitude and loved life. She had outlived two husbands, both of her children, all 8 of her siblings and every one of her friends from before her admission to the nursing home. Yet she stayed positive and forward looking, interested in local politics and in what was happening in public education since she had been a school teacher for decades until she retired. I always admired her ability to stay positive, despite what she had been through, the losses she had suffered, and her present plight of living in a skilled nursing home. She truly did not sweat the small stuff, and I am trying to do the same but not always with great success.
I recall a resident in one of the nursing homes that I managed during my second career as a nursing home administrator and VP of operations for a large non profit healthcare corporations. I would always try to spend a few minutes visiting her when I went to the facility where she lived, which I did about once or twice a month. She was 106 at my last visit there, and totally unimpaired mentally. Although physically pretty limited due to severe and crippling arthritis and some other ailments, she had a positive attitude and loved life. She had outlived two husbands, both of her children, all 8 of her siblings and every one of her friends from before her admission to the nursing home. Yet she stayed positive and forward looking, interested in local politics and in what was happening in public education since she had been a school teacher for decades until she retired. I always admired her ability to stay positive, despite what she had been through, the losses she had suffered, and her present plight of living in a skilled nursing home. She truly did not sweat the small stuff, and I am trying to do the same but not always with great success.
