Painting by Belynda Wilson Thomas

Silence is a true friend who never betrays. Confucius

Do we need silence and boredom to turn our right brain on? I’ve been doing a boring job, removing wallpaper, and as terrible as it sounds, there is an upside. It’s meditative removing it. I’ve listened to podcasts, but also worked in silence.

If silence is one of the things we need to activate our right brain, which is linked to happiness. Then, turning the TV and our screens off and walking or working in silence will boost our happiness.

I grew up in silence, surrounded by the sounds of nature, and I think when we have time to think, we have a richer inner life than when every moment is full.

I like more silence than my husband, who grew up in cities. He tends to like background noise, which I don’t appreciate. If the TV is on, I want to hear what is being said, or I want it off. I don’t want to sleep with the TV on. I don’t mind watching something in bed, but I want to go to sleep in silence.

Learning to live with people is an art. As we jostle for what we feel we need, we compromise on some things and have to live with others that will never be our way.

Journaling is a practice that leads to greater happiness and peace of mind. Walking in nature is another practice that boosts my mood.

In the silence of the heart, God speaks. Mother Teresa

Aging well is something we should all aspire to. Since aging isn’t an option, we may as well try to enjoy the journey and be as well and as happy as we can manage.

Nothing sounds less appealing than being a long-lived curmudgeon scowling their way through life. I’ve had a couple of miserable days, and sometimes I think, what if that was my life every day? There is no point railing against the things we can’t change, but what about not bothering to do anything about the things we can?

When we don’t eat right, we don’t feel good, not feeling good makes us miserable, and not exercising can increase the pain we feel. Eating well and exercising are the antidotes to building a better life. We might rail against the injustice in the world, which we mostly can’t fix, but if we acknowledge what we can control and what we can’t, is this the beginning of wisdom?

Self-interest sometimes sounds like a bad thing, but improving things for ourselves often improves things for others. If we are strong and healthy and have good relationships, it is good for everyone. We hear about the sandwich generation, parents looking after kids, and their aging parents. Many aging parents who take care of themselves are not a burden, and lighten the burden of child care.

Being able to take care of ourselves to the end, or close to the end, with a cheerful smile and words of encouragement for everyone we meet makes us a blessing to ourselves and others. What if being happier, healthier, and active as we age is possible? A good life is something to aspire to, and might be more in our control than we think.

If more silence makes us happier, maybe Mom’s words are more appropriate than ever: “Turn the idiot box off.”

To the mind that is still, the whole universe surrenders. Lao Tzu

Silence is the sleep that nourishes wisdom. Francis Bacon

Let silence take you to the core of life. Rumi

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Painting by Belynda Wilson Thomas

Excellence is allergic to deferred maintenance. Dave Kline

A stitch in time saves nine. Anyone who knits knows it’s true. We get warnings, but often don’t heed them, and then something worse happens. Over the winter, I’ve been getting something or getting over something, so I got out of my morning exercise routine.

On Saturday, it was beautiful, and my husband and I went outside to do yard work. In the evening, sitting and watching TV, I got a horrendous cramp in my left leg, and it took a bit of stretching and kneading to get rid of it. I kept saying to myself over the winter, I need to get back to exercising. Doing a lot, after doing almost nothing, isn’t good for us.

We need to heed the warnings, the still small voice that says I should call or visit. How many people have heeded the voice to run over to a friend or relative to find them in distress? Now that everyone has a cell phone, it won’t happen as often, but not everyone who needs help will call. We tell ourselves they will, but we also know it isn’t easy to ask for help, and sometimes we only see their feeble attempt after the fact.

Dad said to me, “When are you coming out?” Two family weddings were planned for that August, so that was my answer. He died before Father’s Day, and then I understood what he’d been trying to tell me.

When we set up help for Mom, we had a schedule for who would stay with her set up a few months in advance.  She said, “Don’t worry about more than that.” I knew what she meant, and she didn’t need help past what we had set up.

How often have we looked at something and known we have a situation to deal with, before it gets worse? How often do we deal with it in time, and how often does it get worse before we are forced to deal with what we already knew was there to be dealt with?

Never put off till tomorrow, what you can do the day after tomorrow. Mark Twain

Listening to Realtors talk about deferred maintenance, the maintenance needed that never got done. At the time of sale, it all needs to be looked after. A home inspector might give a list pages and pages long of things not fixed. Are there people who are always on top of everything? When something needs doing, they do it. An inspector would find nothing in their house that needs fixing.

What areas of our lives do we have deferred maintenance? What nags at us? Are there improvements we could make that would give us a better life? Would a few exercises in the morning and a walk a day keep us limber and strong? If we handle the little things better, would it add up to big improvements in our lives? In the garden of life, are we planting seeds we want, or are we harvesting whatever the wind blows our way?

Another flaw in the human character is that everybody wants to build and nobody wants to do maintenance. Kurt Vonnegut

If your body is a temple, you can pile up too much deferred maintenance. If your body is a temple, mine was a real fixer-upper. Chuck Palahniuk

Systems do not maintain themselves; even our lack of intervention is an act of maintenance. Every structure in every society is upheld by the active and passive assistance of other human beings. Sonya Renee Taylor

Thank you for reading this post. Please come back and read more, and have a blessed day filled with gratitude, joy, and love.

To subscribe, comment, and see archives or categories of posts, click on the picture and scroll to the end.

Thank you for reading my books, and a special thank you to those who leave a review on Goodreads and Amazon. If you click on the Amazon link and purchase an item, I receive a small percentage of the sale through the Amazon affiliate program.