Life is 10% what happens to you, and 90% how you react to it.

I ran across this litte story today on the internet and liked it:

George is the kind of guy you love to hate. He 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, George 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."

I reflected on what he said. Soon hereafter, George & I lost touch, but I often thought about him when I made a choice about life instead of reacting to it.

Several 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 big burly nurse shouting questions at me," said George. "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 ..

Volleyball went good on Friday. About 12 kids were there and they had fun, I think. Mason said he did anyway.

We are going to Bo's sister's house today for lunch. It looks like it will be a nice day. Yesterday the wind was blowing so badly, you really couldn't go outside, but the forecast says it will die down today. Ah, spring in the panhandle of Texas .... wind, wind, wind!

Hope you all have a great day today!

Not alot going on this week, which is good! Mason went to a Homeschool Student Council Meeting on Monday at the Library. They are working on several activities coming up and Mason says he will go and help. Tomorrow we are having homeschool volleyball in the park next door. This is an activity that I organized to help Mason meet other homeschool kids here in Amarillo. I sent out an email to all members of the Amarillo Homeschool Assoc. I hope some kids show up, and they all have a good time, but we'll see tomorrow! I'm a little nervous about it since I organized it and I'm just a newcomer, so I don't really know how they do things here. --I'm sure it will be fine though.

Today Bo & I got up and took a four mile walk around the park next door. I really like living next door to the park. It was a nice walk. Afterward Bo wanted to go to the museum in Canyon, so we called up Corbin and asked him to join us. We all went and had a great time there.









Upon leaving the museum, we ran by Subway and grabbed some sandwiches, and headed out to Palo Duro Canyon. We sat on the tailgate of Bo's truck and had our lunch.









Then we began a walk out to the Lighthouse. It is six miles to and from, so we wondered if Corbin would be able to make it the whole way. He complained a little, but over all, he did great.
OK..... Bo & Mason did have to give him rides occasionally, but mostly he did walk.


It was really a nice walk and we finally reached the lighthouse. There are a lot of steps to climb to get up to it and we had to stop and rest quite often, but we did make it. Mason & Corbin went on ahead and got there first. If you look really hard you will see them in this picture:










We goofed around on the top for a while and took some more pictures












Finally we started our trek back to the truck. Mason decided he would go over a BIG hill instead of going around it, so off he went. Bo, Corbin & I kept on walking. The more we walked, the more worried Bo became about him. He had thought the other side of the big hill came out right by our trail, but decided that he was wrong. It didn't and Mason would probably get lost. So Bo started up a hill we were beside at that time to try and flag Mason down. Corbin & I went on down the trail. We stopped to wait at a resting spot and were there for about an hour. I was beginning to get worried, when finally we saw them. They had gotten into quite a mess. Very steep hills and a long walk to get back to the trail. They got back all red-faced, tired and Bo was bleeding from scratches from all the tall weeds. Corbin & I were very happy to see them and I think they were us also. We rested a few more minutes and then headed on down the trail.









We got to the truck, headed back home, stopping at Taco Villa on the way, ate, all had baths and are now resting comfortably. It was really a fun day! I bet we all sleep good tonight.