Around
twenty years ago, I was living in Seattle and going through hard times. I could
not find satisfying work, and I found this especially difficult, as I had a lot
of experience and a Masters degree.
To
my shame, I was driving a school bus to make ends meet and living with friends.
I had lost my apartment. I had been through five interviews with a company and,
one day between bus runs, they called to say I did not get the job. I went to
the bus barn like a zombie of disappointment.
Later
that afternoon, while doing my rounds through a quiet suburban neighborhood, I
had an inner wave - like a primal scream - arise from deep inside me, and I
thought, "Why has my life become so hard? Give me a sign, I asked, a
physical sign, not some inner voice type of thing."
Immediately
after this internal scream, I pulled the bus over to drop off a little girl. As
she passed, she handed me an earring and said I should keep it in case somebody
claimed it. The earring was stamped metal, painted black and said 'BE HAPPY.'
At
first, I got angry - yeah, yeah, I thought. Then it hit me. I had been putting
all of my energy into what was wrong with my life rather than what was right! I
decided, then and there, to make a list of 50 things I was grateful for.
At
first it was hard, then it got easier. One day, I decided to up it to 75. That
night, there was a phone call for me at my friend's house from a lady who was a
manager at a large hospital. About a year earlier, I had submitted a syllabus
to a community college to teach a course on stress management. She asked me if
I would do a one-day seminar for 200 hospital workers. I said yes and got the
job.
My
day with the hospital workers went very well. I got a standing ovation and many
more days of work. To this day, I KNOW that it was because I changed my
attitude to gratitude.
Incidentally,
the day after I found the earring, the girl asked me if anyone had claimed it.
I told her no, and she said, "I guess it was meant for you then."
I
spent the next year conducting training workshops all around the Seattle area.
Then I decided to risk everything and go back to Scotland where I had lived
previously. I closed my one-man business, bought a plane ticket and got a six
month visa from immigration.
One
month later, I met my wonderful English wife and best friend of 15 years now.
We live in a small, beautiful cottage, two miles from a paved road in the
highlands of Scotland.
'THE
ONLY ATTITUDE IS GRATITUDE' has been my motto for years now and, yes, it
completely changed my life.
(Author Unknown)
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