See The Stars
By Donnie McKinney c 2005
A good illustration of this principle is a story that was in
"Bits & Pieces" about twenty years ago. It was about a young
bride from the east whose husband was stationed on the edge of
the desert in California during WWII. She decided to go with
him even though she was told that the living conditions were
deplorable. She lived in a run-down shack near an Indian
village. It was 115 degrees in the shade, if you could find
any shade. The wind constantly blew, and sand got into
everything. The days were long and boring. The only people
she saw were the Indians and they didn't speak English.
When her husband was ordered further into the desert on
maneuvers, she decided she just couldn't take it anymore. She
wrote her mother and told her that she was coming home. Her
mother answered with just two lines, Two men looked out from
prison bars. One saw mud, the other saw the stars. After
reading the lines over and over, she began to feel ashamed of
herself. She didn't really want to leave her husband. She
made a choice to look for the stars. Over the next few weeks,
she made friends with the Indians and started learning their
language. They taught her weaving and pottery. She became
fascinated with their culture, history - everything about them.
She also began to study the desert and found it to be
fascinating, not the desolate place she had been seeing. She
wrote her mother and got her to send books about the desert.
She studied all the different cacti, the yuccas and the Joshua
trees. She collected seashells that were left there millions
of years ago when the sand of the desert was an ocean floor.
She eventually became such an expert that she wrote a book
about it.
What had changed? Not the desert; not the Indians. By simply
changing her own attitude, she had transformed a miserable
experience into a highly rewarding one. That's the lesson to
learn. Your attitude is key to happiness in life, and you
have complete control over it.
Each of us shapes our own life, and the shape of it is
determined by the atitude we hold most of the time.
Do you want to change your life? Over the next few days,
start noticing how you look at things. Do you wake up
expecting a great day or dreading it? Do you see your
problems as obstacles or opportunities? Do you look for
reasons why you can't do something instead of ways to do it?
Choose to look at each fact or situation in a positive way.
It's your choice!
