“Laugh, even when you feel too sick or too worn out or tired.

Smile, even when you're trying not to cry and the tears are blurring your vision.

Sing, even when people stare at you and tell you your voice is crappy.

Trust, even when your heart begs you not to.

Twirl, even when your mind makes no sense of what you see.

Frolick, even when you are made fun of. Kiss, even when others are watching. Sleep, even when you're afraid of what the dreams might bring.

Run, even when it feels like you can't run any more.

And, always, remember, even when the memories pinch your heart. Because the pain of all your experience is what makes you the person you are now. And without your experience---you are an empty page, a blank notebook, a missing lyric. What makes you brave is your willingness to live through your terrible life and hold your head up high the next day. So don't live life in fear. Because you are stronger now, after all the crap has happened, than you ever were back before it started.”

~ Alysha Speer

Looking Back

Image by 'PixelPlacebo' via Flickr

A diverse group of senior citizens offered insights that came down to these five points:

1. Be true to yourself by living with intention. Know your heart's desire and seek it.
2. Live it with no regrets. Regrets are feared more than death. So mend fences, make peace. Take chances, pursue those dreams, and accept failure as well. Rather than be crushed by failure, learn from it.
3. Become love. Love is not an emotion but a choice; a way of being that involves seeing ourselves and others with kindness and compassion. That love creates the opportunities to follow your bliss, heal wounds in yourself and others, and to find peace despite challenges and hardships.
4. Live in the moment. Right here, right. That's all.
5. Give more than you take. Find yourself and then lose yourself. Once you identify your heart's desire and live your life pursuing it, the chance of accumulating any regrets is reduced. Once you become love, kindness becomes part of your purpose, and each moment offers all the joy of a lifetime. This creates an abundance of resources in the form of love. trust, hope, joy, kindness, and compassion. Draw from this deep well and give it away. Leave the campsite better better than you found it, as one wise elder put it.

source: here