Reactions

I was thinking today about how people react to bad situations. And I think it is the true measure of the strength of a person's character.

Some people get diagnosed with cancer and fight it from day 1 kicking and screaming (My friend Steve is a good example. Also Lance Armstrong). Other get depressed and shut down

Some people lose a loved one and turn around and start a crusade to prevent it from happening to others (Katie Couric and Colon Cancer, the founders of MADD, SADD, etc). Some people turn into recluses.

I see a whole spectrum of people at the hospital who are dealing with horrible, life altering diagnoses, and I have a lot of sympathy for them no matter how they react. But I am always so inspired by people who stay strong. No sulking, second guessing, no looking back. Just looking forward. Even people who know they will die. Because they know that they will be forever remembered by how they are at the end. That not giving up is going to forever influence the lives of sons/daughters/grandkids. They will have a role model for how to fight adversity.

When smaller things happen to me I always fall into this- feel sorry for myself- funk. It sometimes lasts as little as a few minutes, sometimes weeks. But I just can't look at myself in the mirror when I'm acting like that. And then I make myself realize that any negative thing that happens in your life, no matter how big or small, can be made into a positive if you really want it to.

So I'll add a couple inspirational quotes here. So that everyone out there who is in a funk can use this to try to snap out of it. Life is too short to be funky

We cannot change our past. We can not change the fact that people act in a certain way. We can not change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude.

Words can never adequately convey the incredible impact of our attitudes toward life. The longer I live the more convinced I become that life is 10 percent what happens to us and 90 percent how we respond to it.
Charles R. Swindoll

The difference between school and life? In school, you're taught a lesson and then given a test. In life, you're given a test that teaches you a lesson.
Tom Bodett

Life is either a daring adventure or nothing. To keep our faces toward change and behave like free spirits in the presence of fate is strength undefeatable.

Helen Keller

Happiness is an attitude. We either make ourselves miserable, or happy and strong. The amount of work is the same.
Francesca Reigler

Happy Monday!

:-)