Posted on 03/04/2009 12:58:17 AM PST by Cindy
Note: The following text is a quote:
http://www.assistnews.net/Stories/2009/s09030006.htm
Monday, March 2, 2009
Staying young and active all your life
By Bill Ellis Special to ASSIST News Service
SCOTT DEPOT, WV (ANS) -- A man, I know, had a birthday one-month after Christmas. His son who called from a distant city to wish him a Happy 79th Birthday said, “Dad if anybody asks you how old you are tell them, ‘I’m just barely in my seventies.’ They do not need to know which end of the seventies you are in.
Not many people want to get older and yet very few want to die. My goal is to get older and older and I want to stay young while I am doing it. Our dear friend, David Elton Trueblood, the world famous Quaker philosopher and author, who taught at Harvard, Stanford and Earlham universities used to say to us, “Kitty and Bill, I get to be 80 my next birthday.” He kept moving ahead and was playing tennis in his eighties.
Joann Holmes and Richard McKirahan of Decatur, IL, were involved in sending words my way about “Staying Young”, but neither had any information about the original writer. Enjoy his ideas and mine about staying young as long as you live.
1. Your mind isn’t old, keep using and developing it. Watch less television. Read and write a lot more. Talk with people who discuss ideas and events.
2. Your laughing days are not over. Continue enjoying good humor. A young person said, “I enjoy being around older people who still see the sunny side of life.”
3. Become stronger. Develop your muscles. Stay active. Eat right. Get down to your marrying-weight. Exercise daily.
4. You have opportunities. Try something new. Take a class at your local college. Volunteer at your church or school. Write a history of your family for your children and grandchildren.
5. Think positively. Learn to find more good than bad in life. Let go of criticism. Avoid being sour.
6. Affirm and encourage others. Most children and teenagers would like to have you as a friend. Let them teach you something new.
7. Encourage others. A brief hand written message can warm a troubled soul. A phone call to an old friend can be the brightest light of their otherwise dark and dull day.
8. Widows and widowers are in every church and community. Life can be lonely for them. Almost unbearable on special holidays and holy days as they recall beautiful days from the past. A book, a flower or a casual visit from you can make a world of different.
9. You may even discover talent you do not know you have. My dear friend, Dr. David Coolidge, long after his retirement age, keeps in touch with thousands of us daily with news about our mutual friends. He shares our suffering and sorrows and our joys and blessings.
10. As you grow older, remember the words of David: “I have been young, and now am old; Yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken, Nor his descendants begging bread” (Psalm 37:25).
I would like to die young, in good health, with an alert mind and a loving heart when I am about 100. Actually if I am doing that well I would like to have a few bonus years tacked on.
It was a thrill when I stopped by our church on a recent Sunday afternoon. As soon as I opened the door two beautiful little girls, Alexis and Ashley, came running to give me a big hug. When those strong little arms went around my waist it made my day. To be loved by children is one of the great blessings of life. Some little boys and girls seldom see their grandparents. We could good substitute.
Our living God is ageless. He is still going strong. He is the eternal contemporary. He is well ahead of tomorrow’s news.
-30-
YEP!!!!!
Wry grin...yep.
Laughter is the best medicine .. !
Yep.
I really like the sleep when you’re tired one! How oh HOW can I get the rest of the world to agree with me though?
;)
Copy cat!
Yep yep YEP!
;)
Then I’d be sleeping too much and would miss life — as we know it.
Naaaaaa ya sleep during the day and... Well, WE know the drill!
;)
Another thing, dont think of yourself as getting old. Think chronologically challenged .. !
Sleeping away the days... Now that makes me yawn.
Age is something that doesn’t matter, unless you are a cheese or a fine wine & I want to die young at a ripe old age!!
8^)
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