John 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, John 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 and asked him, 'I don't get it!

You can't be a positive person all of the time How do you do it?'

He 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 choos e 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,' he 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 your life.'

I reflected on what he said. Soon hereafter, I left the Tower 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 he was involved in a serious accident, falling some 60 feet from a communications tower.

After 18 hours of surgery and weeks of intensive care, he was released from the hospital with rods placed in his back.

I saw him about six months after the acciden t .

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 I 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,' he 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

He 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 big burly nurse shouting questions at me,' said John. 'She asked if I was allergic to anything 'Y es, 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.'

He 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

i am not... okay yeah i am

When I grow up, I want to be
One of the harvestors of the sea.
I think before my days are done,
I want to be a fisherman.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkFMJ4-ai1I

LOL! I love that song Spider.

That was inspiring.

I heard this story a long time ago before the Net even. You should probably point out that it isn't yours or that it is a parable or something.

dude I get em I copy em I paste em

That’s really the bottom line right there.

With all the religion, and moral teachings, and stacks of doctrines proclaiming all manner of wisdom, ultimately the true wisdom is that life is about choices.

It really is that simple. And it’s a shame that it gets so muddled. Instead of making this as a very clear and simple message, people get lost in the dogma of what constitutes a ‘good choice’.

And then they start pointing fingers at others proclaiming that they aren’t making ‘good choices’. But choosing to point fingers at others is already a bad choice on their part.

I choose to live at this moment.

I've actually been choosing to die, but it isn't working.

If there was a merciful God that is how we would know.

Well, the biblical God is only "merciful" in the sense that he'll forgive people for being disobedient to him.

In other words, it's only "merciful" in that he will not purposefully inflict punishishment on them.

As the book of Job clearly shows us, God will not take responsibility for what Satan does, not will he life a finger to stop Satan from torturing us. In fact, according to the book of Job God actually gives Satan permission to beat up good people, kills their loved ones, and torture them without mercy.

So God's merci is only limited to his own forgiveness for disobeying him and nothing more. He offers no merci in general. And that's according to his very own book. His very own words in fact. God is actually supposed to be speaking to Job directly in the book of Job when he tells Job that he (God) must be pretty cool to have been able to create fire-breathing dragons. And that because of this magnificent feat no one should question his ultimately wisdom.

I could never quite figure out why God would think it was wise to create fire-breathing dragons in the first place.

But I guess that's because I'm just a lowly mortal idiot who can't see the brilliance in creating fire-breathing dragons. I wonder why God would have thought that was such a cool thing to create?

Maybe he just wanted to show off his power of creation?

It seems to me that he could have done a better job of showing off great creation skills by not having created Satan. But again, I don't think like God obviously. Maybe sadists would better understand the biblical God?

I sure don't. Shirley Temple appeared to be a better person than the biblical God appears to be.

Maybe we should worship Shirley Temple. She has a fitting last name to be the object of worship.

Throughout my years at school, I was always friends with Darren Pope.
He and I just used to hang out with a large group of friends, we were in the same classes as each other for most of the 5 years at school

Then we moved up a band, and the pair of us joined a tutor group with a really cute senior girl called Justine Bishop!.

My family name is Proffitt

So in one class, we had a Pope, a Bishop and a Proffitt (prophet) and our religious education teacher was called the Rt Rev Edward Church ...

... and I STILL dont believe in imaginary friends.