Been spending some time reevaluating life.....

[gimmethesimplelife]

Just had a friend pass on who was a year older than me - age 45. This has really shaken me up and made me realize that nothing is guaranteed, and I have to put some time into each and every day to just enjoy being ALIVE. What I am thinking is that is very important (for me) to have time to read, have time to garden, eat right, and get a sane amount of sleep. Funny how living simply/er and saving some money feed right into this!!!!! Anyway, I'm back contributing to the forum once again, not just lurking as a mod. Rob Grand Canyon North Rim Summer 2011

[redfox]

Hey Rob~ My best friend's partner died of a stroke at age 43, in 1995, and I was 40. That motivated me to move out of the small community I lived in and go to grad school. It's a kick in the ass, alright. I appreciate your sharing this, and am sorry for your loss... I've been in a slump, and remembering Jeff's death is good for me as a motivator to not stay slumped.

[loosechickens]

so sorry to hear about your friend. shocking, I know. And, nothing like that first warning that the lions of mortality are circling the herd of wildebeest, and that it's possible you could be next. Really good for centering oneself and making assessments as to what is really important to you.

and no time like the present, always, to have as much as possible of your life be how you want it to be, so that if you ARE one of the one's who is taken off early by the fates, you'll have lived a full life for whatever length of life you had.

Very sobering, though...isn't it?

[Anne Lee]

So sorry, Rob. Thank you for sharing. It's a good reminder.

[gimmethesimplelife]

so sorry to hear about your friend. shocking, I know. And, nothing like that first warning that the lions of mortality are circling the herd of wildebeest, and that it's possible you could be next. Really good for centering oneself and making assessments as to what is really important to you.

and no time like the present, always, to have as much as possible of your life be how you want it to be, so that if you ARE one of the one's who is taken off early by the fates, you'll have lived a full life for whatever length of life you had.

Very sobering, though...isn't it?Yes indeed, very sobering. And out of the clear blue sky, totally unexpected. And it is somewhat like you said, as the lions of mortality circle the herd of wildabeast.....It sure puts things in perspective. Funny thing is I was once someone who wanted the house in the suburbs and the expensive everything and I drifted away from that life (a wise choice as far as I am concerned) but I still feel like my priorities are not where I would like to be sometimes. This having happened in a way is like looking at the Grand Canyon - it makes my petty problems seem just that, petty. There are places I want to visit, books I want to read, museums I have yet to explore, just so many things I have yet to do - better get cracking! Whenever my time comes, I want to know I did at least most of the things on my list of things I mean to do in this life.....Rob of the North Rim Summer 2011

[gimmethesimplelife]

Also I just wanted to say Thanks for the kind words, too. I know these things happen, it's just that I am now of the age where these kind of things start happening, and my first reaction is - wow, how did this happen? Somehow it just does not seem real even though of course I know it is. Very unsettling to say the least.....Rob North Rim Summer 2011

[catherine]

So sorry about your friend. It's such a shock and a loss when these things happen.

It does make you sit back and think--and it's all the more reason to live for each moment.

Actually, I've been thinking about changing my avatar anyway to this calligraphy by Thich Nhat Hanh saying "This is it." Your thread prompted me to do it now.

[frugal-one]

Rob.. I sure can relate! I am retiring "early" just for that reason. Here today and maybe not tomorrow. There are too many things I still want to do and accomplish. Work just gets in the way of what I truly want to do. So sorry to hear about your friend.

[loosechickens]

It's one of the reasons that I've never regretted us walking out the door of a conventional life when we were 42 and 50. As it was, it turned out well for us, but even if it hadn't and we weren't in the comfortable financial place in which we find ourselves, I wouldn't regret it.

Because we were able to do so many things that if we'd waited for a traditional retirement age, I, at least, would not have been able to do. While my sweetie is still in great shape and can hike long miles and climb mountains, a back injury and then an Achilles heel injury have slowed me down to the point where many of the things we did in the past twenty years would no longer be possible for me. I'll always be grateful for having had those years, out there free as a bird, when I was still hale and hearty and able to walk almost anyone's legs off.

we look at our local paper from PA online (where my sweetie comes from and where we lived for years), and I feel so sad when I see all the people we knew, some still with noses to the grindstone, who we see in the obituaries, who never got a chance to do the things they wanted to do because they were always "getting their ducks in a row" and waiting for just the perfect time, "sometime in the future", to do the things they wanted to do.

good sometimes for all of us to have some of those "wake up calls", especially if it moves us to examine our lives and make sure we are doing what we truly want to do as much as we are able.