"But I'm content with my life."

[Trenchfriend]

Today, when I came back from garden market, next to our secondary railroad, I had a great talk with another guy from our smalltown. When I walked to garden market, he came from there with a big houseplant and when I came back to rail stop, he waited for our railcar, too.
We know each other from seeing since years and we always greet each other.

He's much more handicapped than me, but he more or less can do well. And he does walk much, so he's still kind of fit.
When we started to small talk, it became comrade-like very fast and it went deeper. Talking with him was comfortable, because he had no nervousity. Very calm guy. And he was surprisingly good to understand!

I learned about his personal backround very soon. His parents gave him away early. But in GDR era, he of course had some "socialistic comfort", so he had not a bad time, growing up in our area.

And THEN, he suddenly said: "BUT I'M CONTENT WITH MY LIFE."

Man, that moment was kind of deep and felt good!

And funnily, it came out, that he has a similar mentality like me! He always prefers to have his peace, too! That's, why years ago he moved out of the handicapped people housing complex in one of our neighbor villages into a regular apartment in our smalltown.

 

[Turnip]

Enviable! I bet there are not too few folks out there who could not say that about their life.

 

[Woodtroll]

Being happy/content with your life and the positive things you have going for you is a very important accomplishment, but sadly it is one thing many folks are never able to achieve. It's very nice to be able to say, "I'm not wealthy, but I've certainly got enough to be happy about".

Very few people are "normal" or "average", we're all both boring and crazy at different times in our own individual ways.

Excellent post.

 

[Turnip]

Picked up my brother in law from hospital yesterday.
He suffered from esophagus cancer earlier this year and had to run a neo-adjuvantive chemo plus major surgery and just began to recover very slightly from that.
Last Sunday he went to emergency admission of „his“ hospital and had been checked up intensively.
Result was that he developed a huge metastasis in his throat and he was informed respectively right before I picked him up, watched him talking to his doc.
I drove him home and didn’t hear anything from him anymore.
Today afternoon I suddenly heard the seven liter engine of his C3 Corvette firing up, soon after I saw him driving down our common driveway, leaving for an extended ride.

 

[Tiki Tom]

Great thread.

My mother-in-law, age 89, has just been informed that her cancer is back and that it is aggressive and inoperable. She is completely 100% mentally sharp and knows what is going on. I am impressed by how calm and contented she is. She is content with her life and seems ready for whatever comes next.

I feel it’s important for me to take a lesson from her calm demeanor. Also —at some appropriate point— I will want to tell my children to closely observe grandma’s way of dying. THAT is how to go with courage and dignity. I never had such an example growing up. I appreciate her and am thankful for her.

 

[FOXTROT LAMONT]

I am impressed by how calm and contented she is. She is content with her life and seems ready for whatever comes next.

I feel it’s important for me to take a lesson from her calm demeanor. Also —at some appropriate point— I will want to tell my children to closely observe grandma’s way of dying. THAT is how to go with courage and dignity. I never had such an example growing up. I appreciate her and am thankful for her.

I must refer a film, The Rains Came circa 1938 featuring Myrna Loy and Tyrone Power for the death scene of Miss Loy's character which is witnessed Power at bedside. An utterly beautiful mystic moment of serene majesty. Your comment provokes admiration, all best to your mother in law.

 

[Fifty150]

When other guys were settling down, having children, and diving deep into the rat race of trying to get ahead at work with job titles and pay bonuses - I was living a colorful life. It never occurred to me to not live the next adventure, all the while risking life and limb to accumulate stories to tell at parties. Now here I am, without an ex-wife or child support to call my own. A "has-been". As my cousin said about me; my dress shoes are hiking boots, and my hiking boots are dress shoes. In her world, guys don't wear Allen Edmonds with Vibram lug soles. Nobody in her world has ever gotten into a fistfight at a black tie event. As I see other guys my age getting their second and third divorce; then trying to run backwards against the hands of time, to do the things that they didn't do a decode or two ago....... I'm content. I've fornicated with the devil.