{"id":27872,"date":"2024-02-10T16:17:11","date_gmt":"2024-02-10T16:17:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/?p=27872"},"modified":"2024-02-10T16:23:18","modified_gmt":"2024-02-10T16:23:18","slug":"78-years-1-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/?p=27872","title":{"rendered":"78 Years + 1 Day….."},"content":{"rendered":"

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Photograph by Tony Rogers<\/span><\/p>\n

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It was Mark Twain that said, “The thing about garrulous old people is that they come to a certain advanced age and then climb up on their soap box and tell the rest of us how they got \u00a0there!”<\/span><\/p>\n

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I plead guilty, but it is with the best of intentions! \u00a0Yesterday I turned 78, and it has me thinking…… so if you will give me a minute to crawl up on the soap box, I’ve got some things I want to share!<\/span><\/p>\n

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It seems to me that after almost 8 decades of living, I have come to some truths I want to share with you. \u00a0Accept them or reject them, at least give them some serious thought before you discard them.<\/span><\/p>\n

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5 \u00a0Things You Need to Have a Meaningful Life:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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  1. \u00a0 Faith in something bigger than yourself.<\/strong> \u00a0You don’t have to live very long to figure out that you don’t have much control or maybe even no control over the things that happen in this life. \u00a0If you can’t count on yourself, then who do you count on? \u00a0Sorry, but your friends and family are no better qualified to figure all this out than you are! \u00a0Face it, there is a God and He made you, loves you more than you could ever understand and cares about where your life here on earth is going! \u00a0Trust Him, He will never let you down.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

    \u00a02.<\/strong> \u00a0The path to peace is forgiveness.<\/strong> \u00a0We’ve all been hurt by others and it is easy to hold on to the hurt and develop grudges and often, if left long enough, turns to bitterness and hate. \u00a0Hate does not only kill the one we hate, it kills us too. If you want to shed baggage that is hurting you and others, forgive them.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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    3. \u00a0If you love yourself more than you love others you will never find joy.<\/strong> \u00a0 Joy in life comes from the love of others. \u00a0Healthy self worth is good, consuming love of self is a fatal trap. \u00a0You can never truly be an advocate for others if you place your self interest above them. \u00a0When I was young and immature, when I met a better photographer than myself ,(which was often), \u00a0I was threatened by them and held it against them, over time I came to realize that other’s success did not subtract from mine and that I could be genuinely happy for them and their success. \u00a0Life became so much better when I let go of too much self love!<\/span><\/p>\n

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    4. \u00a0One of the most endearing qualities you can have is being appreciative.<\/strong> \u00a0You should spend much of your day thanking God and others for their acts of kindness. \u00a0Few of us realize how many people have contributed to the lives we enjoy, thank them, they deserve it! \u00a0It will make their day…..and yours too!<\/span><\/p>\n

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    5. To have a few real friends, be a good friend to them.<\/strong> \u00a0It is often said that in life we rarely have more than a few truly great friends, many acqaintances, but just a few real friends. \u00a0A real friend is a treasure to enjoy. \u00a0If you are lucky enough to have one, be a faithful friend to them.<\/span><\/p>\n

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    Well, that’s about it for today, I hope these ideas connect with you and that they make your life better, that’s the only reason I do this!<\/span><\/p>\n

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    Blessings,<\/span><\/p>\n

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    the pilgrim\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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     <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Photograph by Tony Rogers   It was Mark Twain that said, “The thing about garrulous old people is that they come to a certain advanced age and then climb up on their soap box and tell the rest of us how they got \u00a0there!”   I plead guilty, but it is with the best of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27872","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27872","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=27872"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27872\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27875,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27872\/revisions\/27875"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27872"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27872"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27872"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}