“Living is not just, you know, kicking back and watching the world go by. Get on the merry-go-round, man. It can be fun. You meet interesting people, you learn interesting things, and being active allows me to do that.” —Les S.
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Les and his wife, Taya, are retired and enjoy living on the Tennessee River. “My life is very full,” says Les. “There are demands on my life just in an everyday application. There are animals to take care of, there are things to be fixed. So I stay very, very busy. At times, really, I’m overwhelmed with just things I can do. My list is very long.”
So Much to See, So Much to Do
Les says there is so much to see in the beautiful Tennessee countryside. The river contains one of the largest capacities of fish in the world, apart from the Amazon and the Duck Rivers. There is also great bird-watching, as well as a large variety of trees and flora.
“We have so much flora and my wife loves to go walking, and we discover the new flowers that are coming all year. All year, without a doubt. That’s why we like being here,” he says.
Les says he and Taya often stroll in an area called “The Bottoms,” where a lot of vacationers like to camp and go fishing.
“There will be a different group of people every week in the summer, and they know us because we live here,” he explains. “We’re one of five residents that are here full time. So you know, there’s a lot to experience because we see so many different people from so many different ways of life. We do have just a whole melting pot of wonderful people that we meet year-round.”
Serving and Enjoying Life
Other than enjoying life in Tennessee, Les and Taya also travel to serve people in Honduras.
Les shares, “Well, I think the value in life is if you find your purpose. There’s something you’re doing in your life that you want to experience because you enjoy it and that’s seeking your purpose through, you know, the microscope of God. To me, that is paramount in why we should reach out to other people because they’re so different. I learn so much every day.”
Les says his mentor—one of the last singing, riding cowboys in Texas—always said, “If you ain’t learning, you ain’t living,” and he believes that is so true.
“I think just experiencing life, you know, getting to meet different people—when I go to Honduras, there are so many people from all over the world there too. Just sometimes it’s so refreshing to be able to have the capacity just to listen and observe,” Les says. “I tell young people every day, there are two qualities you have to have as a young person in this world today: you have to be observant, and you have to understand what it means to be flexible. Whatever it takes, be respectful, and we understood that. Not that that’s gone away—I just think it’s so misunderstood. You know, we need to understand that there is a deficiency in this world, and it’s a deficiency of love. People just need to love each other, man.”
Spending Time with Family
Les says being healthy is important because he wants to be around for his grandson, and he’s been enjoying walking more with Taya.
“You want to be there to spend time with that person. Taya can walk anywhere she wants to. We’re having those conversations about an owl that flies in front of us that we’ve never seen. That’s a weird thing, but I love it, and I see nature every day. She likes to go outside, she likes to do a lot of walking, and I can do that with her.”
Les also says that becoming a grandpa is one of the greatest things in the world. People told him that having a grandchild was one of the best things, but he didn’t realize it until his grandson was born.
“You say, I want to be around for that little guy,” Les shares. “I want to be able to share experiences with him. He loves trains. We sing songs about trains all the time. And the boy is just active. He walks around on his tippy-toes. He’s so active and just so engaging. He just learns everything.”
Les says it brings him a tremendous amount of joy to see Taya spending time with their grandson.
Taking Balance of Nature Supplements
Les and Taya take Balance of Nature supplements every morning. “I do not miss taking it. I take my three capsules of each every day, normally around five in the morning,” he says.
“My life can be very demanding, and it’s my choice,” he says.
Les says Balance of Nature supplements work for him. “That’s the key. It works for me. It’s kind of like the way I feel about God: You can do whatever you want to do, but I serve God and I trust in Jesus Christ because, after 63 years on this earth, I’ve been through a few things—some good, some bad—but God loves me. He takes care of me.”
Other than taking Balance of Nature supplements and keeping active, Les says he has spent the last three years eating fruits and vegetables from their garden. Les and Taya grow a lot of things they eat such as tomatoes, lettuce, and spinach.
Growing Fruits and Vegetables Together
Les says they’ve been growing gardens for about half of their marriage.
“Some of our gardens were phenomenal,” he describes. “We have fresh squash, beans, zucchini, tomatoes, peppers, bell peppers, green peppers, jalapeño peppers. One year we grew corn in Texas; I was amazed, and it was really good.”
Les has always felt connected to farming. His dad grew up on a farm in Southern Illinois. After the sixth grade, his dad went to work in the cotton fields on his grandpa’s farm.
“Understanding the value of fresh fruits and vegetables is in my blood,” Les shares. “They had to grow their vegetables during the Depression in those years. If they didn’t have their family garden, they didn’t eat, so we tried to duplicate that to a point. So about 20 years of our marriage, we’ve had really good gardens and love it.”
Balance of Nature Supplements Are a Good Investment
Les says he believes he has done a good job of planning for retirement, but he’s always trusted God would provide for him. They currently have Social Security, and not spending money is important, but he believes Balance of Nature supplements are worth it.
“We thought long and hard about it, and I said, just order as a Preferred Customer. You know, I’m going to take them. So we did that, and then I got Taya on board, and we can see that investment. We’d pay three times as much or more because it is that valuable to us. We do stay active, and Balance of Nature supplements play a part in that.”
Les says he plans to continue taking Balance of Nature supplements.
“I really believe in it,” he shares. “I’m retired. I can do whatever I want, you know? That, to me, is such a blessing.”
Les says he would recommend Balance of Nature supplements to anyone. “With Balance of Nature supplements—since I have an understanding of what’s going into it—I can trust it. I do know that, and it’s a good product without a doubt.”
To enjoy a wide variety of ingredients of fruits and vegetables like Les, visit our home page, BalanceofNature.com!
