Originally posted on Facebook HERE
Things aren’t always what they seem. Today marks six full years of writing these posts every week. When I write, I’m sitting in a Health Mate Sauna that my wife gave me as a gift many years ago. When I’m at home I spend time in it every day. It’s awesome. I write every day, I read every day — all in the “box”, as we call it. But I’ll never forget how I felt when she told me she had purchased it. I wasn’t exactly thrilled to say the least. Where are we going to put that thing? I didn’t think I’d use it much, and had a hard time seeing where it was going to go. She could see my disappointment, too. It wasn’t an inexpensive purchase, either. But I decided to give it a try anyway. And now it’s kind of invaluable to me. Looking back on my life, there are many moments, many times when life seemed to hand me a terrible situation to deal with, only to see years later how it impacted my life in a totally incredible and positive way. Drunk driving charge in 1988 — jail, loss of license, totaled car… led to my sobriety later that year. Been clean ever since. Move to Milwaukee with my first wife only to separate months later and eventually divorce… my life was in total limbo. And, looking back now — no way I ever would have met my current wife Laurie without that series of events. We’ll be celebrating 25 years of marriage on Tuesday the 11th. At one point my weight had ballooned to 195lbs, even though I was running 2 miles a day every day (I’m 5’ 8” tall)… I was thoroughly disgusted with myself. Led to me looking into what I was eating, how much I was eating, when I was eating — and doing a 90 day Nutrisystem program. At the end of the 90 days I was 165lbs. Biggest weight loss I’ve ever had. All I did really was change how much and when I ate. But I needed that disgust to give me the impetus to change and stick with it. I’ve been using those concepts ever since. So now, when life hands me lemons… I know there’s something awesome in there. It’s always how it is. It never feels like it when you’re going through it, though. You can tell yourself, “it will all work out in the end”, but… when you’re in the middle of a horrible life event, whatever it is… it can be very hard to see that anything good will ever come of it. A cancer diagnosis. Loss of a loved one. A terrible accident. I’ve seen all of those happen in my life, many times over for people I know. These are tough things to go through. But things aren’t always what they seem, and often there’s a silver lining in there somewhere. You might not see it until years later, though. And you’ll probably never see it if you aren’t looking for it. I hope none of this ever happens to any of you, but if it ever does, keep your mind open to the idea that with every adversity we face there’s and equal and opposite benefit as well. Not easy to do. But, if you look back on your own life haven’t you seen it at least once?… seeds of greatness are often born in the darkest moments of our lives.
