Happiness is something you CHOOSE IN ADVANCE!!!

From time to time... and like the rest of you out there... I receive one of those inspirational or religious emails that you are supposed to read and pass on to everybody you know to avoid an eternity of misfortune and bad luck!  

Do you know the ones I'm talking about?

I usually don't even bother reading them; or if I do, I will only read a few lines, and into the trash bin goes the email and its inspirational content...

Today...

I was catching up with tons of email that had been piled up in my inbox after an almost 3-week long vacation, when  I came across one such "inspirational" email... and for some reason, I ended up reading it through the end....

And yes...

I even passed it on to a few friends....

Fiction or real...

this email contained a short little story...

that carried and conveyed more wisdom and truth in it than any book I have ever read!!!

Here is how the story goes:

A man of 92 years, short, very well-presented, who takes great care in his appearance, is moving into an old people’s home today...

His wife of 70 has recently died, and he is obliged to leave his home...

After waiting several hours in the retirement home lobby, he gently smiles as he is told that his room is ready...

As he slowly walks to the elevator, using his cane, I describe his small room to him, including the sheet hung at the window which serves as a curtain...

"I like it very much", he says, with the enthusiasm of an 8 year old boy who has just been given a new puppy...!

"Sir, you haven’t even seen the room yet, hang on a moment, we are almost there. "...

" That has nothing to do with it ", he replies...

" Happiness is something I choose in advance!!!

"Whether or not I like the room does not depend on the furniture, or the decor – rather it depends on how I decide to see it. " !!!

" It is already decided in my mind that I like my room.  It is a decision I take every morning when I wake up. "...

"I can choose...  

I can spend my day in bed enumerating all the difficulties that I have with the parts of my body that no longer work very well, or I can get up and give thanks to heaven for those parts that are still in working order. "

" Every day is a gift, and as long as I can open my eyes, I will focus on the new day, and all the happy memories that I have built up during my life. "...

" Old age is like a bank account.  You withdraw in later life what you have deposited along the way. "...

I have read these few lines at least twenty times today...

"Happiness is something I choose in advance"!!!

What amazingly powerful words...

Say it out-laud a few times...

Each time, lauder than the last...

Do you feel the sheer power of what it suggests?

Doesn't it make the little hairs on the back of your neck to stand up?

Now...

I'm neither a sentimental fool, nor do I believe in turning the other cheek if someone slaps me!!!  I don't believe in "live and let live"... and I don't believe in accepting any injustice under the guise of having a positive attitude or just being "nice"...

I am however, a big believer in the notion that "the lives we lead are a direct result of the choices we make"...

The events and the details of what we experience in our day-to-day lives are only significant if we let them be significant!!!

What we see...

What we experience...

Are more products of our "perception" and our "state of mind" than the real tangible physical characteristics that they possess...

Take a look at the picture I have chosen for this piece...

If a seed containing vibrant "life" can penetrate a cold, harsh and lifeless brick-and-mortar wall that has been standing for hundreds of years; we too should be able to take what seems to be the most impossible of circumstances, and breath hope, life, and vitality into it...  

   

Life is an "illusion"...

And we can either choose to be the magician/illusionist who creates the illusion...

Or the spectator who stands powerlessly in awe and in disbelief of what she/he sees and experiences...!!!