Happy new year to each of you! I hope and pray that 2010 is a year of love for you, my friends and readers.
One way we can make the most of our year is by living with a positive attitude. That may not always be easy if our circumstances are difficult, but it is possible, and it helps enormously!
I’d like to tell you the story of my friend Mr. Lee. Some years ago, I was doing volunteer work in a hospital in Taiwan.
I would go around to the different rooms with books and magazines for patients to read, and a big smile and cheery greeting for their encouragement. Although most of the patients were glum, some were more cheery than others. As I entered one ward room with various patients, I noticed that although most seemed discouraged, there was one man in a corner bed who seemed positively radiant. I thought to myself that his injuries must have been minimal, and that he was only in for a few days and soon to be released. However, when I asked him about his condition, he told me that he had broken his back from falling seven stories from his balcony, and he would never walk again. He had been in hospital for six months.
I was surprised at the severity of his injuries and more surprised at his joyful spirit. When I finished my rounds, I went back to see Mr. Lee again, this time as a visiting friend. I got to know him a bit more, and over the next months I got to meet his family, and when he was finally released from hospital, he came to visit our home.
I was very interested in how he could be so cheerful in the face of such a difficult situation, and he told me this story (My words, from memory):
“When I first woke up in the hospital, I was surprised to find where I was. My family was so happy that I was awake, and would likely live. When I was told what had happened, I, too was very happy. But very shortly I found out that I had broken my back and that I would never be able to walk again. At that I became very discouraged and angry. I became withdrawn and bitter, and I couldn’t understand why such a thing could happen to me. I was angry, and sullen, and even when my family came to see me, I could not change my attitude.
“But slowly, I began to think more about my family. My wife and children loved me, and they were suffering with me. They had to live with a husband and father that would never walk again, and that was bad enough. But with my attitude of bitterness, they were having to suffer even more. Every time they saw me, they were suffering because of my attitude, and that suffering was needless. I decided that I had to change for their sake.
“I could not change my attitude, but I could pretend to be cheerful. So whenever they came, I would put on a smile that I did not feel, and pretend to be cheerful for their sakes. That seemed to help them quite a bit, and so I continued in that way for a long time. However, eventually, I found that I was not pretending so much anymore. Eventually it became the way I really was. I started pretending to be cheerful, and I became cheerful. Now I have a much more positive attitude about life than I did before. I am enjoying life much more, and I am thankful for what I still have left in my life. Although I cannot walk, I am a computer programmer, and I can continue to work without walking.”
Mr. Lee eventually was released from hospital, and when I last saw him he was walking with crutches, something that his doctors said he would likely never be able to do.
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