Attitude is Everything

If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself, but to your estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment. -- Marcus Aurelius

Do you know when Marcus Aurelius said that? Almost two-thousand years ago! And yet, it still bears repeating on an almost daily basis to remind ourselves when we face our inevitable external challenges that there is always a choice to be made: how we feel about them.

Once upon a time, there were two young men. One of them had an oldmotorcycle that wasn't particularly reliable, but it sure was a lot of fun. Together they shared the pleasure of riding in the country, tasting the fresh air and feeling the freedom of the open road. On one particular afternoon they decided to be adventurous and travel even farther out into the country than they'd ever been before. The scenery was spectacular. Especially the big, dark clouds on the horizon.

When they were just about as far as they could be from anywhere, the motorcycle broke down. There were no nearby houses, no nearby stores or buildings and no traffic on this lonely stretch of road. Not even a bridge for shelter. (This was in the days before everyone had a cell phone.) With no where to go and no ride to hitch, the only way to go was walk. And it was going to be a long walk.

They walked for quite some time until their feet began to ache and the afternoon light began to disappear behind the oncoming ominous clouds. It wasn't long before the darkness of the storm really set in. The rain wasn't far behind. The storm grew in intensity with lightning crashing all around them, thunder rolling and the wind pelting them in the face with cold, hard rain.

There they were, two guys lost in their own thoughts silently walking along a lonely country road in a what seemed like a thunderstorm of biblical proportions. The friend who was walking ahead was feeling thoroughly miserable and bitter. He cursed the incredible inconvenience of having that motorcycle break down. Soaked to the bone, cold and getting hungry, he was wondering how much longer it was going to take to get home and out of this storm. He turned to ask his friend what he thought and was surprised to see his friend smiling from ear to ear; beaming like the Cheshire Cat in Alice in Wonderland. He couldn't believe it! And when he asked his friend incredulously, "Why are you smiling?"

His friend replied with obvious delight in this turn of their adventure, "Man, are we ever workin' off some karma!"

G.K. Chesterton said, "An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. An inconvenience is only an adventure wrongly considered."

Is your life full of inconveniences? Or adventures?