I told the cub master that Ben and I would be staying over on that hike and camp out. Ben is really excited about sleeping over; even in a New England November night. I warned him that there was a five mile hike!
He didn’t mind. That sounded great to him!
I warned him that we would be sleeping out in the cold!
He didn’t mind.
I warned him that I didn’t know anyone else from the pack who was doing that!
And he didn’t mind.
So we’re going.
And they’ve moved it from Camp Nihan, a proper boy scout camp to a local city park called Pine Banks. Its heavily wooded and there’s plenty of space to camp, but you can still hear the traffic and its only a couple of blocks from my house.
It hardly feels like camping, I think!
But, as I have said before: memories and character are made from events like this and not from watching TV. So I am committed to going.
Poor Gabriel. He can’t come. I have promised him that I would take him to all his Webelos camping adventures when its his turn. And that will start next fall I think. Liz thinks I should take Gabe anyway but I can’t.
The brownies are having a father/daughter dance on Friday night and I can’t not go to that. See, I don’t’ care for dancing but I love my little girl, so I guess I will go. Liz also suggested taking Grace. Since I haven’t seen anything that says she can’t come I am happy and willing to take her to the dance. It might be nice. In any case, I have to go so I might as well try to enjoy it.
A number of years ago I got a meaningful piece of email about how to keep your head in the right place. I will include it here, but what’s interesting to me is how true it has been. Oh, I guess this also reminds me of that prayer about having the courage to change things and the serenity to accept that which can not be changed.
Michael 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, Michael 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 to Michael and asked him, “I don’t get it! You can’t be a positive person all of the time. How do you do it?”
Michael 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 canchoose 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,” Michael 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 Michael said. Soon hereafter, I left the Tower Industry
to start my own business. We 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 Michael was involved in a serious
accident, falling some 60 feet from a communications tower.
After 18 hours of surgery and weeks of intensive care, Michael was released
from the hospital with rods placed in his back. I saw Michael 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, ” Michael 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.
Michael 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 Michael. “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.”
Michael 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.
“Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about
itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”
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method for authentication, but I haven’t gotten to work yet.
