The Power of Positive Thinking

Posted March 10th, 2010 by Nealia

Nealia asked me to take over this evening for the blog.  For some reason by the end of the day the last couple nights she has had some pretty disabling headaches.  She asked me to fill in.  Nealia had a full day in the barn today and went back out for more lessons at 4:30 to work with one of her equitation riders.  We got the Press Releases out for the Open House we are hosting for the rescue on Sunday March 21st at 1pm.  So that got done.

We got an email today from some good friends in Illinois.  They often forward to us funny stories, jokes and thoughtful stories that are passed along on the internet via email.  You probably receive similar emails from your friends.  Today the topic was a story, actually a conversation, between an elderly man and an aide at a nursing home.  I thought it pointed out a very basic but fundamental “Life Lesson” and since that was the original reason for Nealia’s blog I thought I would share the piece with you.

Here is the story:

A 92-year-old, petite, well-poised and proud man, who is fully dressed each morning by eight o’clock, with his hair fashionably combed and shaved perfectly, even though he is legally blind, moved to a nursing home today.  His wife of 70 years recently passed away, making the move necessary. After many hours of waiting patiently in the lobby of the nursing home, he smiled sweetly when told his room was ready.

As he maneuvered his walker to the elevator, I provided a visual description of his tiny room, including the eyelet sheets that had been hung on his window.  ‘I love it,’ he stated with the enthusiasm of an eight-year-old having just been presented with a new puppy.  ‘Mr. Jones, you haven’t seen the room; just wait.’  ‘That does not have anything to do with it,’ he replied.

‘Happiness is something you decide on ahead of time.  Whether I like my room or not doesn’t depend on how the furniture is arranged. It’s how I arrange my mind. I already decided to love it.  ‘It’s a decision I make every morning when I wake up. I have a choice; I can spend the day in bed recounting the difficulty I have with the parts of my body that no longer work, or get out of bed and be thankful for the ones that do.’

‘Each day is a gift, and as long as my eyes open, I’ll focus on the new day and all the happy memories I’ve stored away. Just for this time in my life old age is like a bank account.  You withdraw from what you’ve put in.

So, my advice to you would be to deposit a lot of happiness in the bank account of memories!  Thank you for your part in filling my Memory bank.  I am still depositing.’

Remember the five simple rules to be happy:

1. Free your heart from hatred.
2. Free your mind from worries.
3. Live simply.
4. Give more.
5. Expect less.

They said in the email that if you shared this story with 7 people that you would receive a miracle.  I do not know about that but I thought the story was worth sharing.  Maybe I will get some extra credit somewhere??

By the way I am the guy from the cleaner date.  Another update is I think ADP fixed my insurance problem.  I will know for sure in the morning.