Wellness Wednesday: Trouble Is Inevitable

By Steve Moran

“If you wake up every morning, it is inevitable that trouble will come knocking at your front door.”

I was out walking the dogs, listening to some kind of presentation, and the speaker used this quote or something close to it.

It really struck me as a profound truth that we all know but forget. It is true in our personal lives; it is true in our professional lives.

We work so hard to construct our lives and our businesses in ways to keep trouble from happening, but no matter what we do, it is impossible to make trouble go away.

Just in the last few weeks, I have seen a high school classmate die from a heart attack; a 30-something friend I have known since she was a teen, who has two teen girls, be diagnosed with a one-in-a-million orphan cancer that has not cure and no treatment regimen; an acquaintance’s son overdose on fentanyl.

• Our businesses are going well, then a pandemic hits.
• Inflation hits lifetime highs, and the cost of everything is through the roof.
• Demographics shift, making it harder and harder to hire enough staff at any price.
• Interest rates go through the roof, causing massive increases in interest payments and stopping development in its tracks.

Life Is Hard

We have so many conveniences that are designed to make our lives easier, and in many ways they do, but they also make life more complex and more expensive — and no matter how many conveniences we have, trouble still comes.

Core Values and Relationships

At the end of the day, we all die, and that day before we die, the stuff, the conveniences will mean nothing.

Now that I have you all depressed …

The best and most enduring part of senior living is that each day, we get to celebrate relationships and have the unique ability to make a difference in the lives of others. We have the opportunity to know that in spite of trouble, we have made the world a better place for those who will follow us, and that that good will last for generations to come.

Nearly everyone in senior living is experiencing a season of troubles right now. In this holiday season, look beyond those troubles. Tell yourself a story of making a difference in someone else’s life. Go find one more person to help, and remember that no matter what, trouble will come knocking, and trouble is part of what reminds us we are alive and making an impact.