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Health & Fitness

Seeing Through A Window When There Is No Glass

There is a story on the Internet. It could be made up, but it does not matter. It is excellent.

Two men were in a hospital room for weeks. They must be older because no one is allowed to stay in a hospital it seems for that length of time any more. One was by the only window in the room and the other one looked at a blank wall. Every day the man by the window would tell the other man what was going on outside. The other man loved hearing the events going on and it helped to soothe his soul and to forget his illness for a few hours. One day, the first man passed away and the other man asked to be moved over to the window side of the room.

The nurse said it was fine, but wondered why he would want to move. He said he wanted to look outside the window and to see things as his roommate had done. The nurse told him that the man was blind and could see nothing and even if he could, there was no window there. He had been making up his stories. The one who could see imagined everything the blind man told him. The blind one was recalling things he had seen when he had sight.

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What a commentary on life. The blind man became the eyes for his hospital friend and the other man was regaled by the stories. Both men were the recipients of those stories and it enhanced both of their lives.

There is a saying that says, “one positive thought in the morning can change your whole day.” If this is so, try it and see if it is true. I am trying it today to see if it works.

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At the Carson Scholar awards recently, there was a child in a wheelchair. She was being honored for her scholastic ability and her community service. Imagine that. Someone who is sitting in a chair because of a temporary or permanent problem or illness still goes on to be excellent, elite and extraordinary.

We can all take a lesson from that. Being positive does help some days when we are having problems. If we can look at a blank wall, and imagine we see beauty, then perhaps we can look at beauty and transform that beauty unto other blank areas in our mind and soul.

There used to be a school here when I was a kid back in the forties called The William S. Baer School for the Handicapped. Children who could not walk due to various illnesses were schooled there and they went on a special fitted handicap bus to get there and to come home.

They got a fine education there and many went on to colleges and excelled. These kids were filled with vim, vigor and vitality and other than them sitting in their wheelchairs, they looked like your everyday elementary school child. It is very inspiring, though a bit sad to see children in their chairs, but they were so full of life.

Once we were invited to go to their school for an event and I remember being so stimulated and excited seeing all they accomplish. There were handicapped people in Mom’s family, including a deaf brother and a blind brother and sister. Still, viewing these people as kids my age sparked a desire to get to know them. That was not possible but I thought about it a lot as I got older.

We all have windows we can look out of. Some may need a bit of washing with some Windex to make it clearer, others can see through the spots on the glass and others will view it as shiny, bright and squeaky clean. Whatever we view outside the window can help us to continue on with our dreams, aspirations and ideals.

One positive thought in the morning can help make the window of our thoughts bright, vibrant and sparkling all day long. Even, if nothing particularly great happens that day, it will happen soon and the room, the outdoors and the future will be as bright as a shiny window wiped with cleaning liquid.

My husband just bought me an orchid plant in a ceramic container. It stands about two feet tall and the only nourishment it needs is three ice cubes once a week thrown in the container. It will survive for many years with this little watering and it will stand tall. It may droop a little, but it will rise and endure, as we all should do in our everyday survival as we look out of the shiny and clean window of life. My flowers in it are blue, because this is my favorite color since I was old enough to know colors and I will try to stand tall and keep all my convictions, beliefs and thoughts high too.

This is what life is all about, be true to your feelings, do good work to help others when you can and know that words are powerful, potent and permissible and they can turn you into a person who sees everything as it should be and will be in our life and the lives of others we love. Love is quite able to enhance life and life sure can bring love to us. Education can keep going on, no matter how old we are. Learn new things every day and every day will be erudition of refinement and wisdom.

The flowers will stand with great stature and so will you and you will view them even if there is no window to see them.

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