Lilua's

Working a lot.
Things are sort of "stabilizing after turbulence".
More to come --- but resting in work and daily life.
Thank God for that.....
Hope you're well and healthy, whoever you are, reading my blog !

Written By Regina 90 years old, of The Plain Dealer, Cleveland , Ohio

"To celebrate growing older, I once wrote the 45 lessons life taught me.
It is the most-requested column I've ever written."

Some have changed over time so here is the column once more:

1. Life isn't fair, but it's still good.

2. When in doubt, just take the next small step.

3. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone.

4. Your job won't take care of you when you are sick. Your friends and
parents will. Stay in touch.

5. Pay off your credit cards every month.

6. You don't have to win every argument. Agree to disagree.

7.. Cry with someone. It's more healing than crying alone.

8. It's OK to get angry with God. He can take it.

9. Save for retirement starting with your first paycheck.

10. When it comes to chocolate, resistance is futile.

11. Make peace with your past so it won't screw up the present.

12. It's OK to let your children see you cry.

13. Don't compare your life to others. You have no idea what their
journey is all about.

14. Don't take for granted what you have got - or you may lose it.

15. Everything can change in the blink of an eye.

16. Take a deep breath. It calms the mind.

17. Get rid of anything that isn't useful, beautiful or joyful.

18. Whatever doesn't kill you really does make you stronger.

19. It's never too late to have a happy childhood. But the second one is
up to you and no one else.

20. When someone breaks your heart remember they weren't the one for
you, learn to let someone in and love again.

21. Burn the candles, use the nice sheets, wear the fancy lingerie.
Don't save it for a special occasion. Today is special.

22. Over prepare, then go with the flow.

23. Be eccentric now. Don't wait for old age to wear purple.

24. The most important sex organ is the brain - so use it.

25. No one is in charge of your happiness but you.

26. Frame every so-called disaster with these words 'In five years, will
this matter?'

27. Always choose life.

28. Forgive everyone for everything..

29. What other people think of you is none of your business.

30. Time heals almost everything. Give time time.

31. However good or bad a situation is, it will change.

32. Don't take yourself so seriously. No one else does.

33. Believe in miracles.

34. God loves you because of who God is, not because of anything you did
or didn't do.

35. Don't audit life. Show up and make the most of it now.

36. Growing old beats the alternative -- dying young.

37. Your children get only one childhood.

38. All that truly matters in the end is that you loved, make the most
of those you love.

39.. Get outside every day. Miracles are waiting everywhere.

40. If we all threw our problems in a pile and saw everyone else's,we'd
grab ours back.

41. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need.

42. The best is yet to come.

43. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.

44. Yield.

45. Life isn't tied with a bow, but it's still a gift."

Life is like a weird puzzle sometimes.
All the time we try to fit all the various bits & pieces of our life into a puzzle that shows a picture that we can somehow live with.
And then suddenly something happens that totally destroys the puzzle of your life.
A piece, or maybe several pieces, that you didn't know of, suddenly show up, and demands its space in your puzzle.

And you just stand there, literally p u z z l e d....
and try to figure out how to puzzle in all your new pieces.
Which just don't seem to fit anywhere.

Which, in turn, requires a d e p u z z l i n g of the whole thing. A process that leaves you with big holes on spesific spots in your puzzle, holes that seems to be black holes you could fall into and never come out of!!

Holes, that makes your reality shake. Holes, that gives you sleepless nights. Holes that makes you cry your eyes out for the meaningless that it seems to display. Holes of sorrow and loss. Holes of nothing.
And you wonder, will it ever be good again? Will it ever be a picture again, that I can live with? Will it ever again be something, that I find OK to show my neighbours?

Luckily, the demand for meaning&purpose is usually bigger than the need of falling into black holes, and somehow, slowly, slowly, you start puzzling things together again. Maybe you even have to go out and look for some more new bits and pieces to make it all come together.

But you will.
Someday,
sometime,
maybe not this month,
maybe not this year,
but somehow, life is going to puzzle itself together again
it might need some effort in doing so,
but
it
will
happen

It is going to be a picture again.
I hope.
(Maybe with some small holes in it, but hopefully better,still....? )

Thanks....
to the Meaning itself....