'Take the long view'

Recently I had lunch with a friend so we could catch up on our lives. We go back nearly 50 years, and there was a lot of territory to cover. But it was so easy to pick up right where we left off nearly a year ago.

As we shared stories of volunteer activities, part-time and paid work, children and grandchildren and our latest book reads, we both agreed that this time of life is just the best. It's so wonderful to be able to shed some of life's unnecessaries and focus on the main things. Or at least most of the time. It's still easy to get caught up in life's trivia—in those things we cannot change. But more and more, at this stage of life, we can say, "That really doesn't matter anymore. It's not something I can change."

As my friend said, "Even though our remaining time is shorter than the time we've already spent on this earth, we can take the long view now. Most of what we used to worry about so much and obsess over either didn't happen at all or didn't really matter when it did." Oh, so true.

Perhaps I should post that on my bathroom mirror: Take the long view. Sometimes I remember to ask, "A year from now, will this matter? Can my worry make any difference? Is there anything I can do to change what's happening?" There are so many questions one can ask to see whether something is worth your time and energy worrying about it. Let's do less worrying and more focusing on the main things! Let go, let go, let go....