Life’s a trip. Whether it is good or bad, positive or negative, it’s all how you look at it.

“Never forget that life can only be nobly inspired and rightly lived if you take it bravely and gallantly, as a splendid adventure in which you are setting out into an unknown country, to meet many a joy, to find many a comrade, to win and lose many a battle.” ~ Annie Besant

At 1:30 this morning I set out on the splendid adventure of accompanying someone to the hospital ER in a major city. Now, one would think that since the waiting room had only one other person in it, that it would be a quick in-and-out. Well, not so.

While the x-ray was taken almost immediately, we were left in the lounge to wait for four hours before seeing any medical personnel. One might say that it was a gallant effort to sit up all night long, struggling to stay awake. As other patients collected in the lounge, most of them went to sleep in their chairs. At times, our faces (including my own) reflected what my friend called a “Bitter Betty.”

What we could not see from our side of the desk was the entrance that embraced multiple trauma victims, one ambulance after the other, all night (morning) long.

Almost five hours later, the nurse and the physician apologized for the long wait. The nurse commented that it was the worst shift she had worked in a very, very long time – multiple trauma victims. “The good news is they are all living.”

How about Appreciative Annie instead of Bitter Betty…

As we walked to our car five hours later, it was time to reflect on gratitude. Oh sure, we had now been up over 24 hours, and plans for the day were now totally swept away, BUT, we were both alive and well and walking out of the ER. Our thoughts went to those lying in the ICU beds behind us, struggling for their lives, suffering from the trauma.

Upon returning to the apartment and opening the morning emails, Abraham had this message waiting for us, “Every time you say, ‘I appreciate that. I really like that. I applaud that. I acknowledge the value in that.’ Every time you do that, you spend some of your Energy, and it is the spending of the Energy that creates a vacuum, so to speak, or an attraction, so to speak, that draws more and more and more and more.”

On this spring morning, we are grateful for many things: for hospitals for us to go to in the middle of the night, for competent medical personnel that literally save lives, for antibiotics and inhalers to help us survive, and for lungs to breathe, legs to walk, eyes to see, and hearts to be appreciative of all that comes our way on this adventure of life.

Front page in today’s local paper: Painful grimace on a 21 year old’s face as he sits in his wheelchair with a physical therapist on each side of him conducting arm resistance exercises. Paralyzed since a motocross accident in 2006, he affectionately calls one of his therapists his “torturer.”

And what was I feeling sorry for myself about just prior to picking up the paper? Did you wake up today feeling sorry for yourself? This young man will never be able to enjoy the simple pleasures of handwriting out the monthly bills, walking into the dentist’s office, or changing an unexpected flat tire when you are already late to work.

It is all a matter of perspective.

No matter how bad we think we have it, there is always someone experiencing more pain. Why is it we so quickly forget that fact as we wallow in the depths of our own personal despair?

The gurus of all times encourage us to embrace our hardships, for without the contrast we would not create or appreciate the more pleasurable aspects of life.

Og Mandino says it this way: “I will endure sadness for it opens my soul. I will welcome obstacles for they are my challenge.”

What if, just for today, when you catch yourself whining about something, you turn it around into gratitude and appreciation for the experience? What soul growth is happening as a result of the trauma? How will you feel and how will your day, your life, unfold if you come from a place of joy and appreciation for all that happens today?

Cancer survivor Lance Armstrong advises us, “Time is limited, so I better wake up every morning fresh and know that I have just one chance to live this particular day right, and to string my days together into
a life of action, and purpose.”

You and I have the power to appreciate everything about this beautiful day. It’s all a matter of perspective.

Hustle and bustle fills the air – even more so with just 2 days remaining till Christmas, layering on even more activities. The www.tut.com message from yesterday was a wake-up call for me. See if you, too, can relate to it…

“When driving down the road of life, Rosie, rarely do you know how good you have it, until you see it in the rear-view mirror.

Which is not to suggest that you should look back now, but to remind you that where you are today is more awesome and amazing than you probably realize.

 10-4,
    The Universe

PS, Trust me, Rosie, because you’re now in my rear-view mirror… and side view… and up ahead. Rosie, you really do get around.”

Yesterday I received a call from my little granddaughter, giddily telling me about her family’s plans for Christmas Eve. They are going to church with her dad’s parents, then coming home to have a “pajama party.” Mom, dad, baby sister, and Sierra will all wear their pajamas and watch Christmas movies together.

I trust that Sierra will remember this Christmas Eve for the rest of her life. Something as simple as a “pajama party.” Creating memories – memories that will one day be clearly visible from the rear-view mirror.

Yesterday I also pondered on the following quote by Thomas Keller…

 “When we eat together, when we set out to do so deliberately, life is better, no matter what your circumstances.”

Just breaking bread and sharing space with another caring human being (s) can lift the hearts of the already joyous –  or the lift the heart of someone who is in great pain this season.

This weekend a friend said to me, “You come into this world alone. You go out alone. At the end of the day, it’s just you.”

Whoa, that’s a lot of responsibility. At the end of the day, it is just you. You are so special, so very, very important.

At the end of the day, you and I have such tremendous ability to paint a beautiful scene visible for our own rear-view mirror – as well as for others. We may not realize it, but every day we are brushing paint on the canvas of life. Then one day, we look back and gasp at the painting that was created, almost without our knowing.  

The painting doesn’t have to be anything elaborate to create a lasting memory. Even a family Christmas Eve pajama party works.

WOW, what a day, one filled with ceaseless, unbelievable, overwhelming challenges. Everyone has now gone to bed, and finally there is stillness all around. It is nice to sit and reflect on the hurricane of a day.

It seems the first place to start is with gratitude. What are all the blessings of the day? What went well? On the other hand, what about all the “contrast”? You know, those things that make you uncomfortable, those things that make you want to look for the nearest bridge to jump off of?

Ahh, the contrast is a blessing too.  Just imagine what it will be like once we overcome all of that? It certainly pushes us to look for the “better feeling place,” as Esther Hicks says.

Tonight as I count my blessings, I express gratitude for my health. Today I read the following quote:

“He who has health has hope,
and he who has hope has everything.”
                     — Arabian proverb

What, if anything, do we have if we do not have good health? Yesterday I received a message telling me a heartbreaking story about a person I know. A portion of the story went like this:

 “They don’t know what caused it all, just that his liver is failing as well as his kidneys. They will not do dialysis until they can get his liver stable. He was unresponsive yesterday, so they took him by ambulance to the medical center. They said that he has a lot of toxin build-up because the kidneys aren’t functioning. They are hoping to get him on a transplant list for his liver.”

I don’t know about your day, but my contrast piled all together is a thimble’s worth compared to what this poor man is going through. We have so much to be grateful for when we have our good health, and how long will we have good health if we don’t mind our mind and take care of ourselves?

Perhaps life-threatening contrast serves to wake us up so that we learn to do what the Budda teaches us:

“The secret of health for both mind and body is not to mourn for
the past, not to worry about the future, or not to anticipate
troubles, but to live in the present moment wisely and earnestly.”

Tonight I express gratitude for all the day’s events that went well and for all the things that didn’t go so well. The contrast is my teacher. Tonight I appreciate this present moment and vow to be more wise as I go about spending tomorrow’s moments.

Today I have been pondering on what to write. An email I just received has stirred my thinking. I had sent an email to a company receptionist telling her I forgot to order two additional products that I will be needing on June 15 when I return from a trip. Here is her response:

“Let me know if you need anything else so I can make sure to have it by then! Will have the products here waiting for you, and I am going to give you the total for the two products….$60.88….if you need anything else on that day, let me know and I will have your total for you!!!”

Wow, customer service at its finest…taking the extra steps to make me feel like a million bucks and not a thorn in her side (which I thought I was being). Her email, which probably didn’t take much more than a minute, lifted me up. She taught me that it doesn’t take much time to make someone else’s day.

Just before reading that email, I wrote some personal notes to my granddaughter’s dance teachers. This is recital week and time for me to reflect back on yet another year of memories, sweet memories created by these wonderful instructors. Week after week, they pour their hearts out into these tiny little girls who have an attention span of about five seconds. I will never understand their level of patience, encouragement, and pure joy as they transform these little spirits into sweet little dancers, just in time for the end of year recital. The girls laugh and clap with glee. Oh, how happy and excited they are!

Giving and receiving. Isn’t it a magical thing? It takes both to complete the cycle. For me, it has always been easiest to give – and difficult to receive. However, both are required for the balance of energy. My twenty-four year old son held my feet to the fire to teach me this lesson this past year. Since his company provides his transportation, he decided to give me his car in gratitude for all I have done to help him get to the place in life he now enjoys. I balked and carried on for months, at least wanting to pay the remaining balance. He would hear none of it. Finally one day he firmly informed me, “Momma, we’ve covered this before. You need to learn to receive.”

I received yet another lesson this past weekend. My friend, a wonderful photographer, went with me to a state park a couple hours away to take some pictures for my upcoming book cover – 395 of them! She emailed me a few of them, and I was in complete awe at what she had magically produced. I told her I wanted to pay her as any other customer, and I asked her what I owed. Her response? “I want the photographs to be a gift to you . . . we had such a lovely time!”

Wow, it is so much easier to give than receive.

Then after reading her message, I reviewed the message of a friend of a friend of a friend asking if I could help her. She had tried, with no success, to contact a book producer that I personally know. She wrote to me asking if I could help in any way. I in turn sent a message to the producer explaining the situation, asking if she could be of help to this person. Within minutes, I received a response saying she would love to help her. Words cannot explain the excitement I felt as I grabbed my purse and keys and rushed out the door to go to Jazzercise. You would have thought I had just won $500. It was so very thrilling to be able to be of help.

Suddenly it occurred to me…when I deny others the opportunity to give to me, I rob them of this same heart experience. My drive to Jazzercise gave me a lot to think about this morning.

And so life goes, giving and receiving. Perhaps the lesson in all of this is, “Give with gusto and receive with grace, and the whole wide world will be a happier place.”

This week in Captiva has been quite interesting. The arctic cold has hit this tiny island along with the rest of the US. It is 35 degrees and the news reporters this morning are issuing warnings for parents to bundle their children – and telling them where to call to get an emergency coat. Apparently people don’t have winter coats here. Of course, next week the temperatures are predicted to return to normal, high 70’s to low 80’s during the day and a frigid 59 degrees at night. On top of the rare weather, I am finally on the downhill side of a cold that presented itself on Sunday morning, first day here. What’s up with that?

Well, in reviewing the stresses I put myself through the week prior to our trip, I can see where the cold came from. Big lesson there on what not to do. The weather? Who knows. However, as the wind is howling outside my door, I am reminded that winter will be followed by spring and there is so much to be grateful for, no matter the circumstances. All we have to do is look around to see how wondrous life is.

In just a few hours one of the couples in our group will be married on the beach. It sounded so romantic as they planned their wedding… shorts and barefoot in the sand with blue skies and a balmy breeze. Looks like we all will adjust things just a tad. However, a little weather won’t curb their joy as they begin their new life together. We will all just appreciate, a little more, the warm confines where the brunch will be served. Perhaps that’s why we have the contrast – so that we can appreciate things a little more, taking nothing for granted. Today will create memories for all of us. None in our group has ever been to a wedding on a beach before.

Hmmm, as I think about it, every day creates memories. It’s just that we often take the moment for granted. It is only when we look back that we realize how precious the moment truly was. Ahh, this is the lesson for me today…regardless of what today brings, and despite any circumstances, let me not waste any of its precious moments. And speaking of precious moments, I gotta run…what was that emergency number for a coat again?