Words of Wisdom from the young and the old

Words of Wisdom from the young and the old

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Today was straight up exhausting.  We moved for 13 straight hours without taking even a five minute break.  It was nuts!  And the sad part is that we barely made a dent in all that needs to be moved still.  I have to remind myself every day that the mountains of stuff we still need to move are getting smaller, even if they still look ridiculously bad to me.  I am so sore everywhere tonight and I am definitely ready to climb in bed and get some rest.

Today I wanted to pay tribute to my sweet mother who turned 72 years old yesterday. Happy Birthday Mom!  And in honor of her I thought I would share some words of advice that come from both ends of the age spectrum.  I will start by sharing advice that comes from children and then share some advice from our elders. Both have their merits to share:

Advice from Children:

• Never trust a dog to watch your food.
• When you want something expensive, ask your grandparents.
• If you want a kitten, start out by asking for a horse.
• Never tell your mom her diet isn’t working.
• When your mom is mad at you, don’t let her brush your hair.
• Don’t wear polka-dot underwear under white pants.
• Never pee on an electric fence.
• Never try to baptize a cat.
• If you can’t say something nice, then don’t say anything at all

Advice from our Elders:

• Don’t waste time worrying about things you can’t control.
• Focus on doing the very best you can be, and becoming the best quality of human being possible and then trust God to take care of the rest.
• You can’t fight every battle.  Choose which ones are worth fighting and let the others go.
• When deciding on a life partner, think about whether this is the person you want to grow old with, not someone who just satisfies you now.
• Surround yourself with good people.  Goodness is contagious.
• Don’t love only from your heart.  Love also from your head.
• Live your life to the fullest.  Tomorrow isn’t promised to anyone.
• It takes more muscles to frown than it does to smile.
• Enjoy even the smallest of life’s blessings.  You never know when the next one is coming.
• The best way to receive is to give.
• Happiness is a happy home.

Great lessons to be learned from both the young and the old.

I think my favorite advice was to focus on the things you can control and let go of things that you cannot control.

“We either make ourselves miserable, or we make ourselves strong.  The amount of work is the same.”  – Carlos Castaneda

So be strong.  Focus on what you can control.  And for heaven’s sake – SMILE!

~Amy