When your her age (80) what would matter to you most?

I heard something incredibly funny the other day, an old man, who had just received a huge payout from his life insurance for not claiming for the last ten years, was told by the twenty year old broker, “Sir you have what everyone in the world wants, you have time and money.”

This made me think: are these really the two things that would make me happy when I am 80? And then another occurrence, my grand mother who has always been fit as fiddle was suddenly taken into hospital. Although I have realised by grand parents are getting old, it was still a shocker. And I couldn’t help but think about how happy she was before all of this happened.

She was completely satisfied with her life. She had raised five children, six grandchildren and now her first great grand child. She had seen the world , from traveling to the Eiffel Tower, to fighting for her home in District Six. And even now on her old day she manages a non-profit organisation that provides food to other seniors in the community.

This is what I want- to know that I made a difference. To know that I have touched people’s lives in a way that changed it forever. To know that each day I fought for what I believed in, loved hard and had just gone all out.

The elephant in the room...

‘The elephant in the room keeps scaring off the guests..’ the words of a very wise love band called The Script, which has always made me think about those ridiculously awkward moments in my life, caused by my own elephants.

So what is an elephant in the room? In my opinion it is any feeling that makes people feel that, although they are in a room with a few people there is not enough space to breath. It is the tension that hangs in the air when things are said, or even worse when they are left unsaid. And why an elephant is used is because of its size. The irony is that something so huge can still be ignored. I mean really if there was an elephant in your room, it would be the first thing you would notice and the first thing you would talk about.

In order to maintain your sanity I would advise address the elephants at the door before they enter. Stop them right there and deal with them. In life we are constantly fight to keep our lives on the track, keeping the elephants in place is unfortunately part of the package.

In conclusion, what has worked for me, is to deal with things, talk about them, get upset if you must, get over it and move on.