I saw the most beautiful quote in an email today:
“The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failure, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill. It will make or break a company... a church... a home. The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past... we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude. I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% of how I react to it. And so it is with you... we are in charge of our Attitudes.” ~ Charles Swindoll
How great is that? And how true... We can't change what we've done, what other people have done. We can't change the past. But we can choose how we react to it. And if we don't like how we've been reacting to it, we can reframe it and change our attitude.
My goodness, I'm so grateful for the principle of agency. There aren't a lot of things in my life that I get to choose, but I always get to choose how I react.
This month has been fraught with memories of what was happening in my world this time last year. My guess is that it probably would have been an emotional full-of-memories month anyway, but the knowledge that I have a new little malignant friend growing in my body and that I am - yet again - destined for the operating table, has brought it home on a different level.
One thing that has really helped me this month has been knowing that I am not the only one living a flashback kind of month. My friend Marcus lost a child in March of 2011. His sweet wife, Kim, has been blogging about Ethan all month. (If you'd like to read their story, click here.) I so admire how she has focused on the happy memories they have with their son. I absolutely love that they have chosen to honor Ethan's memory by declaring the anniversary of his death as a day to perform Errands for Ethan (acts of service), and I love that they've extended an invitation to literally hundreds of people to join them in this. They are such great examples of finding joy and purpose in trial and adversity and I'm grateful to know them.
Again, I am so grateful for the principle of agency. Not often do we get to actually choose what roads life will take us down, but we always get to choose how we'll act or react once we get down that road. I'm so grateful for the blessings that choosing peace and finding joy bring into my life. I'm so grateful for incredible, faithful people like Kim and Marcus, who have been such examples of strength - not only to me, but to anyone and everyone else lucky enough to be on the fringe of their family's story.
"The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude." - Amen, Charles Swindoll. Amen.
