I met a remarkable 88-year old man in the doctor’s office last week.

He has leukemia and has to have 12 pints of blood drawn every time he is given medication to prolong his life.

I was just getting a simple B-12 shot but I came away with a lesson about living.

He talked openly about his terminal disease.  Complained that it was difficult to walk very far without getting winded but eagerly reminded me that he could still drive.

I said, “unfortunately we don’t get to choose the illnesses that we get” and he laughed.

At peace with what will happen next, he talked about the full life he lived grateful for every moment.

It reminded me of a Dr. Seuss quote.

“Don’t cry because it’s over. Smile because it happened”

We have losses and we have gains.

When there are too many losses without a balanced number of gains, we are unhappy.

So another key to happiness is when faced with the small or major losses we experience in our lives, work actively to replace them with something that we gain to balance the ledger.

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