The story below was emailed to me once by a very close friend of mine...

MIRACLE OF ATTITUDE

Jerry is the manager of a restaurant in America. He is always in a good mood and always has something positive to say. When someone would ask him how he was doing, he would always reply, “If I were any better, I would be twins!”
Many of the waiters at his restaurant quit their jobs when he changed jobs, so they could follow him around from restaurant to restaurant. The reason the waiters followed Jerry was because of his attitude. He was a natural motivator. If an employee was having a bad day, Jerry was always here, telling the employee how to look on the positive side of the situation.
Seeing this style really made me curious, so one day I went up to Jerry and asked him, “I don’t get it! No one can be a positive person all of the time. How do you do it?” Jerry replied, “Each morning I wake up and say to myself, I have two choices today. I can choose to be in a good mood or I can choose to be in a bad mood. I always choose to be in a good mood.
Each time something bad happens, I can choose to be a victim or I can choose to learn from it. I always choose to learn from it. Every time someone comes to me complaining, I can choose to accept their complaining or I can point out the positive side of life. I always choose the positive side of life.”
“But it’s not always that easy,” I protested. “Yes, it is,” Jerry said “Life is all about choices. When you cut away all the junk, every situation is a choice. You choose how you react to situations. You choose how people will affect your mood. You choose to be in a good mood or bad mood. It’s your choice how you live your life.”
Several years later, I heard that Jerry accidentally did something you are never supposed to do in the restaurant business: left the back door of his restaurant open one morning and was robbed by three armed men. While trying to open the safe, his hand, shaking from nervousness slipped off the combination. The robbers panicked and shot him. Luckily, Jerry was found quickly and rushed to the hospital. After 18 hours of surgery and weeks of intensive care, Jerry was released from the hospital with fragments of the bullets still in his body.
I saw Jerry about six months after the accident. When I asked him how he was, he replied, “If I were any better, I’d be twins. Want to see my scars?” I declined to see his wounds, but did ask him what had gone through his mind as the robbery took place.
“The first thing that went through my mind was that I should have locked the back door,” Jerry replied. “Then, after they shot me, as I lay on the floor, I remembered that I had two choices: I could choose to live or choose to die. I chose to live.”
“Weren’t you scared?” I asked. Jerry continued, “The paramedics were great.
They kept telling me. I was going to be fine. But when they wheeled me into the Emergency Room and I saw the expressions on the faces of the doctors and nurses, I got really scared. In their eyes, I read ‘He’s a dead man.’ I knew I needed to take action.”
“What did you do?” I asked. “Well, there was a big nurse shouting questions at me,” said Jerry. “She asked if I was allergic to anything.”
‘Yes,’ I replied. The doctors and nurses stopped working as they waited for my reply. I took a deep breath and yelled, ‘Bullets!’ Over their laughter, I told them, ‘I am choosing to live. Please operate on me as if I am alive, not dead’.”
Jerry lived thanks to the skill of his doctors, but also because of his amazing attitude. I learned from him that every day you have the choice to either enjoy your life or to hate it.
The only thing that is truly yours that no one can control or take from you-is your attitude, so if you can take care of that, everything else in life becomes much easier.

- Anonymous

A long time ago, there was a huge apple tree. A little boy loved to come and play around it everyday. He climbed to the treetop, ate the apples, took a nap under the shadow. He loved the tree and the tree loved to play with him. Time went by. The little boy had grown up and he no longer played around the tree every day.

One day, the boy came back to the tree and he looked sad. "Come and play with me" the tree asked the boy. "I am no longer a kid, I do not play around trees any more" the boy replied." I want toys. I need money to buy them."
"Sorry, but I do not have money. But you can pick all my apples and sell them. So, you will have money."
The boy was so excited. He grabbed all the apples on the tree and left happily. The boy never came back after he picked the apples. The tree was sad.

One day, the boy who now turned into a man returned and the tree was excited "Come and play with me" the tree said. "I do not have time to play. I have to work for my family. We need a house for shelter. Can you help me?"
"Sorry, but I do not have any house. But you can chop off my branches to build your house." So the man cut all the branches of the tree and left happily. The tree was glad to see him happy but the man never came back since then. The tree was again lonely and sad.

One hot summer day, the man returned and the tree was delighted. "Come and play with me!" the tree said. "I am getting old. I want to go sailing to relax myself. Can you give me a boat?" said the man. "Use my trunk to build your boat. You can sail far away and be happy." So the man cut the tree trunk to make a boat. He went sailing and never showed up for a long time.

Finally, the man returned after many years.
"Sorry, my boy. But I do not have anything for you anymore. No more apples for you." the tree said.
"No problem, I do not have any teeth to bite" the man replied.
"No more trunk for you to climb on"
"I am too old for that now" the man said.
"I really cannot give you anything... the only thing left is my dying roots" the tree said with tears.
"I do not need much now, just a place to rest. I am tired after all these years" the man replied.
"Good! Old tree roots are the best place to lean on and rest, Come, come sit down with me and take rest." said the tree.
The man sat down and the tree was glad and smiled with tears.

This is a story of everyone. The tree is like our parents - When we were young, we loved to play with our Mum and Dad...
When we grow up, we leave them. And only come to them when we need something or when we are in trouble. No matter what, parents will always be there and give everything they could just to make you happy.
You may think the boy is cruel to the tree, but that boy belongs in every one of us, we take our parents for granted and we don't appreciate all they do for us, UNTIL it is too late.

May God forgive us of our shortcomings and may he guide us!

This is something I had been thinking for a long time to bring to others’ notice. I have experienced that Mahatma Gandhi has an overwhelming fan following the world over. However, there are certain observations that I have upon this. First, some of the people simply do not know much about him. Perhaps they have just heard his name and that he had a key role to play in India’s independence. Some treat him as a saint without knowing what all he had said. Then there is a substantial chunk of people who keep mentioning his sayings at different places and who are keen to promote or at least follow him at an individual level. To me, he was no God and I feel that what he wanted all Indians, rather all mankind, to understand was that he, like us, is a human being who has same thirst, hunger and responses as we have. So if one man can do something, why not others? It is natural human tendency to make someone a saint if he shows a behavior that is uncommon or beyond normal human understanding or capacities. But who sets these capacities? It is our limited thinking which keeps us away from achieving a control over ‘self’. To me, Mahatma Gandhi would not have enjoyed the fame if he were to be alive. He once said something which became quite popular with time: “My Life is my Message”. This contains the essence of his life. He was not a rulebook but a live demonstration of triumph of straightforward attitude and clarity of thought. He precisely wanted people to live life on their own with an awakened consciousness and need not become dependent on one Mahatma. Perhaps his vision was one of a country where everyone would be a Mahatma. But unfortunately the country is not going the way he envisioned. I strongly feel that by giving a serious thought to the path he followed, we can still pave a way towards reducing the inequality in the world. But are we ready upon searching the Mahatma inside us?