Not waiting for God!

[Sunny B]

I wathche the film "Round Ireland with a Fridge" the other night on the iplayer and one of the characters was driving round the long way, rather than taking the quicker main road, because he said it was more beautiful.

He said his uncle had died in the Irish troubles and his motto was that you could be dead tomorrow so you'd better make sure you are alive today, which I thought was a really good way of summing things up, at any age.

[jannie]

I definitely think age is just a number .. there's a lady living up the lane from me who's 87..she's always smartly dressed and has an immaculate house and gardens which she looks after alone .. a wonderful lady
... but in the last 3 weeks I have lost 2 dear friends from strokes ..both of them the same age as me .. I usually have a positive attitude to life and get on with it despite arthritic bones ..but it has made me wonder/worry whether I'm as healthy as I'd like to think I am

[mrs boodles]

Jannie, sending you a hug so sorry you have lost 2 of your friends

[HappyBob]

Just caught up with his thread. Richard says that he gets inspiration from other folks of wiser years and thats great. Myself without sounding patronising get inspiration from blokes like Richard, who follow their convictions and break away from "the norm" and do the life thing their own way, and that to me is one of the greatest gifts you can give yourself.
As the saying goes,

Life is not a journey to the grave with the
intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body,

but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming -- WOW!!!!!!!!!!-- What a $%*?+%@ Ride!"

[Richard]

Love that attitude Bob !!

Jannie, it goes like that doesn't it. I get a bit thoughtful through Winter when I'm not working so much, it's wet, windy, generally miserable.
This last winter, it seemed there was hardly a week where some Actor or singer din't pass away who was the same age as me and you think 'blimey, he was on TV two weeks ago and looked great'.

A fine edge isn't it, all the more reason to get as much as you can from life, when you can.

Richard

[p.penn]

Oh Jannie, I am very sorry about your friends.

Sunny, you are so right but it is very hard to actually achieve.

[perchy]

Jannie

[jannie]

Awww thankyou .. you are all so lovely

I am feeling really down at the minute .. and these were 2 friends I would have turned to to cheer me up .. events of the last few weeks ( I could write a book!!) have certainly put life into perspective and ..along with this thread.. it's made me realise how much more I want to do with my life.

[Richard]

We live in a kind of false sense of security don't we. I lost my longest serving friend last Summer and I was very surprised how hard that hit me, you kind of think they and me will live til 75 plus, but the script doesn't always read that way.
You see someone one week and the next week they're gone and not in a funny or emotionless way, it's permanent.

I often look at all the old photographs of Players and Teams from a 100 years ago, they're not here anymore and that makes me think how much we are just passing through, custodians so to speak.

If we can leave just one little bit better than when we came, it'll be a good, sort of legacy.

I'm sure many here can easily relate to your story and understand how you feel - it's not nice, but from every experience we learn something and often even gain from it. That's their legacy.

Richard