A 92-year-old, petite, well-poised and proud woman, who is fully dressed each morning by eight o’clock, with her hair fashionably combed, even though she is legally blind, moved to a nursing home today.
Her husband of 70 years recently passed away, making the move necessary. After many hours of waiting patiently in the lobby of the nursing home, she smiled sweetly when told her room was ready.
On the long walk to the elevator, as she paused to lean on her cane, the attendant provided a visual description of the woman’s tiny room. “I love it”, she stated with the enthusiasm of an eight-year-old having just been presented with a new puppy.
“Mrs. Jones, you haven’t seen the room; just wait”, explained the attendant.
“That doesn’t have anything to do with it”, she replied. “Happiness is something you decide on ahead of time. Whether I like my room or not doesn’t depend on how the furniture is arranged. Rather, it’s how I arrange my mind. I already decided to love it. It’s a decision I make every morning when I wake up. I have a choice; I can spend the day in bed recounting the difficulty I have with the parts of my body that no longer work, or get out of bed and be thankful for the ones that do.”
The elderly woman continued, “Each day is a gift, and as long as my eyes open, I’ll focus on the new day and all the happy memories I’ve stored away…. Just for this time in my life. Old age is like a bank account. You withdraw from what you’ve put in. So, my advice to you would be to deposit a lot of happiness in the bank account of memories! Thank you for your part in filling my Memory Bank, as I am still making deposits each day.”
According to Mrs. Jones, being happy is a choice we make each day, and it’s simple if we just remember these five rules:
1. Free your heart from hatred.
2. Free your mind from worries.
3. Live simply.
4. Give more.
5. Expect less.
So family and friends hopefully this happiness can be shared and felt by all that read my blog Insyaallah.
