Sean Hannity closes his radio and television shows with this phrase “let not your heart be troubled.” A sweet saying, but hard to observe.

There is so much to be troubled by. Everyday something is said about everything going on. Now rice is being warned against being used for babies and everyone, because of arsenic content. Large sodas are being banned in New York City and obesity in children and salt content for children too is being noted.

My mom was a worrier and now I have inherited her worrisome ways. There is a saying that states “worrying does not empty tomorrow of its trouble, it empties today of its strength.” We need all the strength we can have every day of every week. We need to take care of our health, our wealth, our families and our self and to make sure our health insurance does not let someone decide if we as seniors can get an operation or a procedure in the future, even if someone of no medical background decides we are too ‘old’ to get it. If we want to even pay for it our self, out of our own pockets, it can be denied for us. This is something to worry about.

I had a friend whose husband was a retired doctor. He got a part time job adjudicating for the government and he had the job to decide who was to get insurance benefits when they had been temporarily suspended. I asked how he knew who to give and who to deny and she said he reads reports and decides. He never saw the patient, just read reports from others, who had denied the patient the care or money to do it.

There is another saying that sums this up. “If you don’t step forward, you will always be in the same place.” In ballroom dancing, the lady always starts going backward and the man comes forward. That is the way it is set up and especially when the lady is wearing high heels, it is not always easy when you are older. Many of us seniors who dance now rely on flatter shoes or lower heels. This helps to navigate our dancing to easier movements. Higher heeled shoes of course look prettier, sexier and make the foot look slimmer. The lower or flat shoes are more comfortable and as you age and still dance, you need comfort more than beauty.

Toyota automobiles in their ads in print and on television states “this is not a destination, it is a journey.” Life is an everyday journey.

Many years ago, a doctor sent me for a heart test and this vicinity did not have the machines to do it. I went to Washington, D.C. for this test and I had to pay for it as it was done. The main heart doctor at the George Washington University Hospital read the test and everything was fine. I submitted the papers to my insurance company and after speaking to about sixty-five representatives, getting their names it kept on being rejected. It was in the amount of four hundred dollars, was an acceptable test, but the machine was not available here. It was performed in a reputable clinic not far from the George Washington Hospital which has a fine reputation.

Every time I called the health insurance company, I would write the name of the person I spoke to who told me the payment would be in the mail in two weeks. When I called back, they said we have no person with that name. I spoke to supervisors, assistant supervisors, managers and regular clerks. Finally on the sixty-sixth call, I kept a record of them, one lady told me “I will make sure you get reimbursed, she gave me her name and lo and behold, nine months later I received a check for eighty percent and I was thrilled. I was thrilled because I had not only the money for a necessary test; I had persevered, worried, and continued on with my quest to win out over the bureaucracy putting me off.

A friend of mine after his wife had children and had to work from home; started a home business representing seniors who could not call constantly like I did for a payment and she does it for them for a small fee. She is making a living doing this, because it is hard for seniors and not yet seniors too to keep on ‘keeping on in the pursuit of fighting for what they need.’

Maybe, we should not worry about so much that is going on, maybe we should go forward and not backward and most of all we should not let our heart be troubled as the sayings state. It is still difficult to let up on trying to fix things in our life that bother us.

Perhaps, we can lighten up a bit in our worrying about the economy, health matters about insurance denials, health in general and try to be a little calmer, but it is difficult to do. It is our individual choice and I would say, perhaps in my naïve way, do what is best for you at this time, but never give up your ideas on what you believe in and even if we women have to walk backward when we dance, there are many forward things we can do with the rest of our life. Go forward and not be in the same place often. Let our hearts not be troubled, but keep on accomplishing what our heart tells us what we can accomplish.