This month’s topic for my writers group was “Happiness”. Seeing as how I am an expert on the subject, I thought it would be easy to write more than my usual 3 or 4 line essay. I was wrong. All I could do was share the ‘true fact’ I know about Happiness…………If I’m not happy it’s my own damn fault. Seems like that was a lesson I learned from my ex-husband. He sure wasn’t going to let me blame my unhappiness on him. I tried, believe me, I tried.
I hope you all had a Happy Holiday. I certainly did.
Love, Lynne
today i learned that happiness is an ATTITUDE i have to choose on a daily basis. i have been blaming bob’s cancer for many low days. he is surviving and with little doubts, this cancer will NOT come back. cancer or no cancer, i will strive to make my morning attitude change after reading this today.
short version- “Choosing your attitude”
John is the kind of guy who is always in a good mood and always has something positive to say. When someone would ask him how he was doing, he would reply, ‘If I were any better, I would be twins!’
He was a natural motivator.. If an employee was having a bad day, John was there telling the employee how to look on the positive side of the situation.
Seeing this style really made me curious, so one day I went up and asked him, ‘I don’t get it! You can’t be a positive person all of the time. How do you do it?’
He replied, ‘Each morning I wake up and say to myself, you have two choices today. You can choose to be in a good mood or…you can choose to be in a bad mood; I choose to be in a good mood.’ Each time something bad happens, I can choose to be a victim or…I can choose to learn from it. I choose to learn from it.
Every time someone comes to me complaining, I can choose to accept their complaining or…I can point out the positive side of life. I choose the positive side of life.
‘Yeah, right, it’s not that easy,’ I protested.
‘Yes, it is,’ he said. ‘Life is all about choices. When you cut away all the junk, every situation is a choice. You choose how you react to situations. You choose how people affect your mood. You choose to be in a good mood or bad mood. The bottom line: It’s your choice how you live your life.’
Years later, I heard that he was involved in a serious accident, falling some 60 feet from a communications tower. After 18 hours of surgery and weeks of intensive care, he was released from the hospital with rods placed in his back.
I saw him about six months after the accident.
When I asked him how he was, he replied, ‘If I were any better, I’d be twins…Wanna see my scars?’
I declined to see his wounds, but I did ask him what had gone through his mind as the accident took place.
‘The first thing that went through my mind was the well-being of my soon-to-be born daughter,’ he replied. ‘Then, as I lay on the ground, I remembered that I had two choices: I could choose to live or…I could choose to die. I chose to live.’
‘Weren’t you scared? Did you lose consciousness?’ I asked. He continued, ‘…the paramedics were great. They kept telling me I was going to be fine. But when they wheeled me into the ER and I saw the expressions on the faces of the doctors and nurses, I got really scared. In their eyes, I read ‘he’s a dead man’. I knew I needed to take action.’
‘What did you do?’ I asked..
‘Well, there was a nurse shouting questions at me,’ said John. ‘She asked if I was allergic to anything ‘Yes, I replied.’ The doctors and nurses stopped working as they waited for my reply. I took a deep breath and yelled, ‘Gravity” Over their laughter, I told them, ‘I am choosing to live. Operate on me as if I am alive, not dead.’
He lived, thanks to the skill of his doctors, but also because of his amazing attitude…I learned from him that every day we have the choice to live fully.
Attitude, after all, is everything.
PRETTY GOOD STORY- now i have to smile in the mirror every morning knowing that i can blame gravity for some of my baggy faced wrinkles, and laugh at the laugh lines, remembering that all my laughs were worth the laugh lines. You, my dear cousin, just the thought of your joyful laugh makes me smile. i think of you as a positive person who spreads joy, and is GOOD at it. Thank you for giving me happiness as i write this to you. Love,Patty
Comment by cousin Patty — January 10, 2010 @ 7:40 pm