Today a beautiful older woman sent me an email that made me think. I love to read things that cause me to pause, and also to connect with another way of viewing others.

The title was "Your Bank Account", but it was not at all what I thought it would be about. The story goes that a 92 year old man, legally blind was moving into a nursing home. His wife had passed away and he had no other choice, but to move since they had taken care of each other and now he was all alone.

He arrives at the nursing home facility where he will live. As health care institutions go, he had to wait for hours before his room was ready, and finally an attendant came to show him his new room. As he led the way he began to talk describing the room, trying to make it seem as though it were something exciting on the other side of the door.

Now if I'm the elderly man that just lost his dear wife of many years, and I have no close family to rely on, I am not particularly worried about whether the room is great or not. In my mind I am thinking this is the last place I will live out the last years of my life, so who cares about the room. Who will come and visit and spend time with me in this room, is what I would be thinking. Wouldn't you?

But in all the wisdom that comes with growing older, this dear sweet man's response to the description of the room was this;

"I love it, he stated with the enthusiasm of am eight-year-old having just been presented with a new puppy."

The attendant replied, how do you know, you've never seen the room.

The elderly man said "that doesn't have anything to do with it." He went on to say, "Happiness is something you decide on ahead of time. Whether I like the room or not doesn't depend on how the furniture is arranged,,,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. 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."

Awesome stuff right? Then he said, "Old age is like a bank account. You withdraw from what you've put in, so my advice to you would be deposit a lot of happiness in the bank account of memories!"

After reading this email from my dear older friend, I could not stop the tears from forming in my eyes. I was overwhelmed with old memories and I was so happy that I had any!

This beautiful elderly man gives (5) simple rules to be happy and I think we all owe it to ourselves to practice them:

1. Free your heart from hatred

2. Free your mind from worries

3. Live simply

4. Give more

5. Expect less and have a nice day, unless you already have other plans!

I love older people...they are filled with wisdom and a sense of calm that makes me want to hug them and never let go.