Great Wisdom Page

Around The Corner: By Henson Towne

Around the corner I have a friend,
In this great city that has no end,
Yet the days go by and weeks rush on,
And before I know it, a year is gone.
And I never see my old friends face,
For life is a swift and terrible race,
He knows I like him just as well,
As in the days when I rang his bell.
And he rang mine
we were younger then,
And now we are busy, tired men.
Tired of playing a foolish game,
Tired of trying to make a name.
"Tommorow" I say "I will call on Jim"
"Just to show that I'm thinking of him."
But tommorow comes and tommorow goes,
And distance between us grows and grows.
Around the corner!- yet miles away,
"Here's a telegram sir"
"Jim died today."
And thats what we get and deserve in the end.
Around the corner, a vanished friend.

Remember to always say what you mean. If you love someone, tell them.
Don't be afraid to express yourself. Reach out and tell someone what
they mean to you. Beause when you decide that it is the right time, it
might be too late. Seize the day. Never have regrets. And most importantly,
stay close to your friends and family, for they have helped make you the
person that you are today. Pass this along to your friends. It could
make a difference. The difference between doing all that you can
or having regrets which may stay with you forever.

Two men, both seriously ill, occupied the same hospital room. One man
was allowed to sit up in his bed for an hour each afternoon to help
drain the fluid from his lungs. His bed was next to the room's only
window. The other man had to spend all his time flat on his back. The
men talked for hours on end.

They spoke of their wives and families, their homes, their jobs, their
involvement in the military service, where they had been on vacation.
And every afternoon when the man in the bed by the window could sit up,
he would pass the time by describing to his room-mate all the things he
could see outside the window. The man in the other bed began to live
for those one-hour periods where his world would be broadened and
enlivened by all the activity and colour of the world outside.

The window overlooked a park with a lovely lake. Ducks and swans
played on the water while children sailed their model boats. Young
lovers walked arm in arm amidst flowers of every colour of the rainbow.

Grand old trees graced the landscape, and a fine view of the city
skyline could be seen in the distance. As the man by the window
described all this in exquisite detail, the man on the other side of
the room would close his eyes and imagine the picturesque scene.

One warm afternoon the man by the window described a parade passing by.
Although the other man couldn't hear the band - he could see it in his
mind's eye as the gentleman by the window portrayed it with descriptive
words.

Then unexpectedly, a sinister thought entered his mind. Why should the
other man alone experience all the pleasures of seeing everything while
he himself never got to see anything? It didn't seem fair. At first
thought the man felt ashamed. But as the days passed and he missed
seeing more sights, his envy eroded into resentment and soon turned him
sour.

He began to brood and he found himself unable to sleep. He should be by
that window - that thought, and only that thought now controlled his
life.

Late one night as he lay staring at the ceiling, the man by the
window began to cough. He was choking on the fluid in his lungs. The
other man watched in the dimly lit room as the struggling man by the
window groped for the button to call for help. Listening from across
the room he never moved, never pushed his own button which would have
brought the nurse running in.

In less than five minutes the coughing and choking stopped, along
withthat the sound of breathing. Now there was only silence - deathly
silence.

The following morning the day nurse arrived to bring water for their
baths. When she found the lifeless body of the man by the window, she
was saddened and called the hospital attendants to take it away.
As soon as it seemed appropriate, the other man asked if he could be
moved next to the window. The nurse was happy to make the switch, and
after making sure he was comfortable, she left him alone.
Slowly, painfully, he propped himself up on one elbow to take his first
look at the world outside. Finally, he would have the joy of seeing it
all himself. He strained to slowly turn to look out the window beside
the bed.

It faced a blank wall.

Epilogue:
You can interpret the story in any way you like. But one moral stands
out: There is tremendous happiness in making others happy, despite our
own situations. Shared grief is half the sorrow, but happiness when
shared, is doubled. If you want to feel rich, just count all of the
things you have that money can't buy.

Michael is the kind of guy you love to hate. 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 reply, "If I were any better, I would be twins!" He was a natural motivator. If an employee was having a bad day, Michael was there 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 Michael and asked him, "How do you do it?" Michael replied, "Each morning I wake up and say to myself, you have two choices today. You can choose to be in a good mood or you can choose to be in a bad mood. I 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 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 choose the positive side of life. "Yeah, right, it's not that easy," I protested. "Yes, it is," Michael 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 affect your mood. You choose to be in a good mood or bad mood. The bottom line: It's your choice how you live life." I reflected on what Michael said. Soon thereafter, I left the Towe Industry to start my own business. We lost touch, but I often thought about him when I made a choice about life instead of reacting to it. Several years later, I heard that Michael was involved in a serious accident, falling some 60 feet from a communications tower. After 18 hours of surgery and weeks of intensive care, Michael was released from the hospital with rods placed in his back. I saw Michael about six months after the accident. When I asked him how he was, he replied. "If I were any better, I'd be twins. Wanna see my scars?" I declined to see his wounds, but did ask him what had gone through his mind as the accident took place. "The first thing that went through my mind was the well-being of my soon to be born daughter, " Michael replied. "Then, as I lay on the ground, I remembered that I had two choices: I could choose to live or I could choose to die. I chose to live." "Weren't you scared? Did you lose consciousness?" I asked. Michael continued, "...the paramedics were great. They kept telling me I was going to be fine. But when they wheeled me into the ER 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 nurse shouting questions at me," said Michael. "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, "Gravity." Over their laughter, I told them, "I am choosing to live. Operate on me as if I am alive, not dead." Michael lived, thanks to the skill of his doctors, but also because of his amazing attitude. I learned from him that every day we have the choice to live fully. Attitude, after all, is everything. "Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." Matthew 6:34 After all today is the tomorrow you worried about yesterday.

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