A question came to mind regarding hope.

Posted by joybo99 @joybo99, May 2 6:13pm

Because feeling "hopeful" has been associated with living longer, I was curious if the absence of hope would have the opposite effect, i.e., shortening a life.
Then I found this article which may interest others.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5552440/#:~:text=Results,respectively%20(P%20%3D%200.002).

Interested in more discussions like this? Go to the Aging Well Support Group.

This week I began my yearly campaign to control the invasive stilt grass that threatens to take over the woods behind our house. The stilt grass grows fast and kills the other ground cover plants.
Every morning I weed whack for one battery charge of the lightweight weed whacker.
It gives me about 15 minutes of exercise and by mid-June the ferns, sea oats and other small plants will have recovered.
Repeat in September.
This gives me hope!!!

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@edsutton

This week I began my yearly campaign to control the invasive stilt grass that threatens to take over the woods behind our house. The stilt grass grows fast and kills the other ground cover plants.
Every morning I weed whack for one battery charge of the lightweight weed whacker.
It gives me about 15 minutes of exercise and by mid-June the ferns, sea oats and other small plants will have recovered.
Repeat in September.
This gives me hope!!!

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I love this story and relate to it completely.
The retaining wall between my home & a neighbor Is basically an out of control bed of English ivy and assorted weeds.
I've been trimming pulling hacking away for 25 years.
It's my reliable nemesis!

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@joybo99

This is a great question! I look forward to seeing responses to this.

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@gravity3
“Be in it to win it”, “Never give up“, and “ Finish strong”!

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@captboat

@gravity3
“Be in it to win it”, “Never give up“, and “ Finish strong”!

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The discourse has been fascinating.
Thanks for your response!

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I was reading over some previous messages and I feel very happy that I shared a personal experience and I received so many positive feedback, thank you.

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@mir123

This is very profound--thank you for a post that really touched me.
Victor Frankl, the psychologist, survived the death camps in the Holocaust. He is best known for this thought--“Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms – to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way.”

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I was going to suggest that people reading this thread read Mans Search for Meaning. That book changes me every time I read it.

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@hopenr

I was going to suggest that people reading this thread read Mans Search for Meaning. That book changes me every time I read it.

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A read this book many times. It should be on everyone list.

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@hopenr

I was going to suggest that people reading this thread read Mans Search for Meaning. That book changes me every time I read it.

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Thanks for the suggestion, Hope. Just ordered it from our library.

/LarryG

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@joybo99

The discourse has been fascinating.
Thanks for your response!

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Joybo-

I continue to think about this topic. Thank you for leading it.

I would like to think (=hope?) that the things I hope for have some reasonable possibility of coming into being, either through my own efforts, or because by getting out of the way I can allow life's processes to offer new possibilities.

I saw your comment elsewhere about pain:
"I guess 11 would be death.
Which (I hope) takes us back to Zero?"

I also have that hope, the hope that the time will come when I will cease trying to solve the problem of Me. (Meanwhile I'm grateful to have the opportunity to try...and the scenery is wonderful.)

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I am very old. I will be 90 next month. Since my husband died 3 years ago, I have lost hope of ever having a meaningful life. But yet I am still here - even without hope. I am relatively healthy. I live alone. I am independent. I can drive. In short, my age has not prevented me from living like a "normal" person. But still I do not look forward to however many years I have left. Please no religious remarks.

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