This being my first posting, I want to introduce my idea for this blog. I have often thought to myself as I have come across some interesting piece of health information, “I should do something with this info so others can read, hear about, or look at it.” I often don’t want to publish these tidbits and ideas on my website as the topics can vary quite widely and the amount of information can become unwieldy. Aside from that, I really want to receive comments and I’d like to offer a way for my patients and others interested in their health to communicate with each other. Finally, I am forever a student, always wanting to learn more, and I often find that my patients and the people I meet are a wonderful source of information and inspiration.

This will also be a great opportunity for me to learn what topics “inquiring minds want to know” so I can do a larger focus for magazine articles and e-newsletters I write.

Let’s start this off with something inspiring…one of those things you get via email that at first seems like a waste of time (or perhaps a good way to procrastinate from work you should be doing), that you read while hovering the cursor over the “delete” button, and that you then smile at when you finish and send it off because you think it might make someone else smile too.

We can all learn a lesson from this great old girl! The 92-year-old, petite, well-poised and proud lady, who is fully dressed each morning by eight o’clock, with her hair fashionably coiffed and makeup perfectly applied, even though she is legally blind, moved to a nursing home today. Her husband of 70 years recently passed away, making the move necessary.

After many hours of waiting patiently in the lobby of the nursing home, she smiled sweetly when told her room was ready.As she maneuvered her walker to the elevator, I provided a visual description of her tiny room, including the eyelet sheets that had been hung on her window.

“I love it,” she stated with the enthusiasm of an eight-year-old having just been presented with a new puppy.

“Mrs. Jones, you haven’t seen the room …. just wait.”

“That doesn’t have anything to do with it,” she replied.”Happiness is something you decide on ahead of time. Whether I like my 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. Old age is like a bank account …you withdraw from what you’ve put in. So, my advice to you would be to deposit a lot of happiness in the bank account of memories. Thank you for your part in filling my Memory bank. I am still depositing. Remember the five simple rules to be happy:

1. Free your heart from hatred.
2. Free your mind from worries.
3. Live simply.
4. Give more.
5. Expect less.”

Have a happy day!

Let’s not wait until we are 92 to learn this great wisdom!