Thursday, April 29, 2010

There are no problems only opportunities

This saying saved my life around 1994 and 1995. I was very stressed and my marriage then of 15 years was ending and I was lost.

However, thinking that problems didn't exist and that every situation I encountered was an opportunity saved my life and my sanity and I was able to recover. By 1999 I had more than recovered even though in 1998 doctors thought I was going to die for 7 months. By fall of 1999 I had physically recovered enough to take my then 10 year old daughter and my mother to Scotland to visit the towns her parents had grown up in (near Glasgow) and to meet my then 25 year old son in Munich who was traveling through Europe with a friend on a Eurail pass. The two of them had already been to at least 5 European countries by the time my daughter and mother and I flew into Munich to rent a motor home there.

Even though it is true that my 40s likely were one of the worst times in my life, it is also true that by taking to heart "There are no problems only opportunities" and praying a lot saved my life. So that even though I was divorced  I remarried in late 1995, almost died in 1998. And recovered and went to Europe with my Mom and 10 year old and had another daughter with my new wife in 1996.

And because I took on this new opportunistic way of seeing life the last 10 years have been some of the very best in my life. Yes. I'm 62 now but the last ten years were better than I ever could have expected or imagined at any time in my life. My life is a miracle. But I believe even if your life is difficult now if you take this saying to heart it can save your life too. Forcing yourself to view your life as a series of opportunities rather than problems will give you hope and allow you to think clearly and to solve anything that comes up. Attitude is everything!

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