LIFE’S LESSONS
By Henrylito D. Tacio
“I always look on the bright side of everything. If you keep aiming for some goal, you usually get there if you don’t give up.” – Bart Cummings
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American filmmaker David Lynch, the man behind Wild at Heart, Elephant Man, Mulholland Drive, and Blue Velvet, once said: “We all have at least two sides. The world we live in is a world of opposites. And the trick is to reconcile those opposing things. I’ve always liked both sides. In order to appreciate one, you have to know the other.”
His words came to mind while reading the story that was posted by Health Secretary Ted Herbosa in his social media. Allow me to share it with you:
A famous writer sat in his study. He took out his pen and started writing: “Last year, I had surgery to remove gallstones. I was bedridden for a long time. In the same year, I turned 60 and was forced to retire, quitting a company that I loved so much. I had to leave the job I’d been doing for 35 years.
“That same year, I was abandoned by my beloved mother who passed away. Then, in the same year, my son failed his final medical exam because of a car accident. Repair costs from the car damage marked the peak of bad luck last year.”
At the end, he wrote, “What a bad year!”
His wife entered the room and found her husband sad and pensive. From behind, she’d seen what he’d written. Slowly, she backed away and left the room. But 15 minutes later, she came back in and put down a piece of paper with the following:
“Last year, my husband finally managed to get rid of his gallbladder which had been making his stomach hurt for years. That same year, I am grateful that my husband was able to retire in a healthy and happy state of mind and body. I thank God he was given the opportunity to work and earn for 35 years to support our family. Now, my husband can spend more of his time writing, which has always been his hobby.
“In the same year, my 95-year-old mother-in-law returned to God in peace, without any pain. And still in the same year, God protected our son from harm in a terrible car accident. Our car was seriously damaged by the accident, but my son survived without any serious injuries.”
In the last sentence his wife wrote: “Last year was a year full of extraordinary blessings from God and we spent it full of wonder and gratitude.”
The writer smiled with emotion and warm tears flowed down his cheeks. He was grateful for a different point of view for every event he had gone through in the past year. A different perspective of the same events now made him joyful.
Walt Whitman on sunshine and shadows
American author Walt Whitman said it right: “Keep your face always toward the sunshine, and shadows will fall behind you.” Everything could be worse but isn’t, and so we are justified in being grateful; and everything could be better but isn’t, and so it is easy to be bitter unless you decide to look on the bright side.
The Daily Motivator also affirms, “No matter what kind of troubles you may have, just think of how fortunate you are to be alive and living in a world where almost anything is possible. Consider for a moment the good things you have, and the good things that you can accomplish through your willingness, determination, and action.”
When you see things, always try to see the brighter side. As an ancient Persian saying goes, “I had the blues because I had no shoes, until upon the street, I met a man who had no feet.”
This reminds me of the true story of Major Frederick Franks in an article written by Suzanne Chazin for Reader’s Digest. It went this way:
Major Frederick Franks stared at the Christmas tree in his drab hospital room. It was the time of year for joy, but Franks felt only sadness. Seven months earlier, in May 1970, while he was in Cambodia, grenade shrapnel had torn into the lower half of his left leg. Doctors were preparing to amputate it.
Franks had graduated from the US military academy at West Point, where he was captain of the baseball team, and he had planned to make the army his career. Now, retirement seemed the only option. Although Franks felt he still had a lot to offer the army – combat experience, technical knowledge, an ability to solve problems – he knew that soldiers with severe injuries seldom return to active duty. They must pass a yearly physical-fitness test, which includes a three-kilometer run or walk. Franks wasn’t sure he would be up to the task with prosthesis.
After the surgery, Franks felt saddest of all about giving up his prowess on the baseball diamond. At weekly games, he batted while someone else ran the bases for him. Waiting to bat one day, he watched a teammate slide into base. “What’s the worst that could happen if I tried the same thing?” he thought.
In his next turn with the bat, Franks hit the ball into center field. Waving away his runner, he began a painful, stiff-legged jog. Between first and second, he saw the outfielder throw the ball towards the second baseman. Closing his eyes, he willed himself forward and slid into second. The umpire called “Safe!” and Franks smiled triumphantly.
A few years later, Franks led a squadron through military exercises in rough terrain. His superiors wondered if an amputee was up to the challenge, but Franks showed them he was. “Losing a leg has taught me that a limitation is as big or small as you make it,” he said. “The key is to concentrate on what you have, not what you don’t have.”
I like that. We have to count each day as a blessing. No matter how small the things are now facing, consider yourself blessed. “The things that count most cannot be counted,” a friend once told me. William A. Ward agrees: “The more we count the blessings we have, the less we crave the luxuries we haven’t.”
“Reflect upon your present blessings, of which every man has plenty; not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some,” Charles Dickens urges.
Thankfully, we all have a lot more going for us than it sometimes appears. Yet, with blessings aplenty, far too many people still plod along, holding tight to their scarcity state of mind. They don’t see much good happening to them and not surprisingly, not much of anything ever happens in their lives. It never occurs to them that what they don’t see is exactly what they don’t get.
Here is a timely piece of advice from Germany Kent: “Positive thinking is powerful thinking. If you want happiness, fulfillment, success and inner peace, start thinking you have the power to achieve those things. Focus on the bright side of life and expect positive results.” – ###
