Rethinking Life At 83 Toppling My Balance Life Over 60

Hello and welcome. This is Sandra Hart at Life Over 60. Thank you so much for stopping by again. I'm going to be talking about something that's really been on my mind lately. There are three solutions to every problem. Accept it, change it, or leave it. If you can't accept, change it. If you can't change it, leave it. Hello and it's so great to see you again. As you know, if you've been following my channel and if you're a member of my community, you know that my husband has been in the hospital for a while. And when I want to take a break, sometimes I will leave the room and I go out and I walk the hall and look at all the photographs, the framed photographs that they have in the hallway. The other day, I went past a photograph and I stopped and I looked at it and I thought, wow, that really reminds me of a trip that Arthur and I took back in the late 90s to Los Angeles. We had gone out there because my son was making his first, and he was in the studio a lot, but we went out there to try to be supportive of him. And while he was in the studio that had to be for a couple of days, we decided that we would rent a car and go up the Pacific Highway all along the coast past Big Sur and all the way up to the Redwoods. I had never made that ride before, but I heard how nice it was. It was absolutely breathtaking, so beautiful that I really have never forgotten it as of today that many years ago. We stopped for lunch at a restaurant that actually had been the home of Orson Welles and Rita Hayworth. Now Rita Hayworth, the actress, Orson Welles, the genius director and writer, and I guess he bought it for Rita at one point, but now it's a restaurant. We sat out on the deck and, oh, the view absolutely was breathtaking. And this was only one section of that highway. All along it was gorgeous, but we had such a nice lunch and just marveled at the vistas beyond us. It was fantastic. At the end of the day, we stopped at a motel, and it had a creek behind it, and I walked back behind. And in that creek, it was the first time that I had ever seen stacked rocks, kaon rocks. People that stayed there would always leave a stack of kaon rocks perfectly balanced, because if you don't balance the rocks just right, they topple. The next morning, Arthur and I got up, had breakfast, and then we went out to the creek, gathered stones, and created our own kaon rock statue so that it would be there forever until someone toppled it, or hopefully make it still there now. I don't know, after all these years. But looking at that photograph reminded me so much of that trip, but it also reminded me of what I was doing with my life right now. I was toppling my life. I was so much off balance. And do you know why? I was focusing on one area of my life that it was about to topple me. I had to see that photograph to remind myself that I had better get back in balance, or else I really was going to be in big trouble. Life teaches us how to try to balance all of the elements in our lives so that we don't topple. I had forgotten that. I sat down and I thought about, what have I learned in my 83 years of living? There are very easy areas and thoughts about your life that can help you keep in balance when you feel like you're focusing and putting too much energy into one part, into one element of your life. The first one is to give, but don't allow yourself to be used. It isn't good for people to confuse your kindness with weakness. Love, but don't let your heart be abused. Believe and know that you deserve respect. Trust, but don't be naive. Always, always listen to your intuition. Listen, but don't lose your own thoughts. It's okay to be open to other ideas, but don't abandon your values and your thoughts. Four things that are so simple, but if we all can learn to keep all of those elements in our lives in balance, it really helps us navigate the journey that we're going to be on. I thank you for all your wonderful comments and prayers for my husband. Both of us sincerely appreciate them and please, as I always say, really do something very good for yourself today. Be kind to whomever crosses your path. Let's all share the love and of course pray for world peace and those who are less fortunate than we are. Thank you and I hope to see you again next Tuesday for another conversation. Be well and know that you are loved.