| Have you ever had something happen in your life | | | | This morning, I was talking with a dear friend who |
| that, at first glance, looked like a terrible | | | | has just been diagnosed with cancer for the third |
| misfortune but looking back you see that it was | | | | time. She shared with me that both previous |
| actually a valuable experience, which taught you | | | | times she underwent diagnosis and treatment for |
| something you needed to learn? Sometimes, | | | | cancer, she learned incredible lessons along the |
| events that look or feel so terrible at the | | | | way. While she would not wish this on herself or |
| moment turn out to give us a inspiration or new | | | | for anyone, she can recognize the gifts her |
| direction and focus. | | | | journey has brought to her. |
| A fable that I read many years ago sums up my | | | | She went on to say that after the shock of the |
| point perfectly: | | | | news that the cancer had reoccurred, she had a |
| A farmer had a horse but one day, the horse ran | | | | realization. While she doesn't know if this third |
| away and so the farmer and his son had to plow | | | | episode will be 'her time" or not, realized that, |
| their fields themselves. Their neighbors said, "Oh, | | | | either way, she needs to address some unfinished |
| what bad luck that your horse ran away!" But the | | | | business with two of her children. While she would |
| farmer replied, "Bad luck, good luck, who knows?" | | | | ordinarily prefer to avoid this issue, she now feels |
| The next week, the horse returned to the farm, | | | | she must deal with it. Through her terrible news, |
| bringing a herd of wild horses with him. "What | | | | once again, comes the urgency and courage to |
| wonderful luck!" cried the neighbors, but the | | | | face her toughest issues head on. She has |
| farmer responded, "Good luck, bad luck, who | | | | decided to be honest with her children and share |
| knows?" | | | | what she knows in her heart needs to be said. |
| Then, the farmer's son was thrown as he tried to | | | | Successful people share with me, over and over, |
| ride one of the wild horses, and he broke his leg. | | | | similar stories about some perceived terrible |
| "Ah, such bad luck," sympathized the neighbors. | | | | events like a divorce or illness or loss that |
| Once again, the farmer responded, "Bad luck, | | | | changed the entire course of their lives |
| good luck, who knows?" | | | | dramatically. Yet that change may also have |
| A short time later, the ruler of the country | | | | brought them to a place that is indescribably |
| recruited all young men to join his army for battle. | | | | better than they could ever have imagined. Had |
| The son, with his broken leg, was left at home. | | | | those supposedly terrible experiences not |
| "What good luck that your son was not forced | | | | happened, they might not have found the resolve |
| into battle!" celebrated the neighbors. And the | | | | to make other changes happen along the way. |
| farmer remarked, "Good luck, bad luck, who | | | | I am not suggesting that there are no such things |
| knows?" | | | | as tragedies or losses. What I am saying is that |
| In my own life, as a teenager and into my early | | | | loss and pain can be just one aspect of a difficult |
| twenties, I got involved with drugs and alcohol and | | | | experience; positives can result from making |
| ended up broke, literally homeless, and in trouble | | | | meaningful experiences out of our challenges. For |
| with the law. I had no hopes, dreams or sense of | | | | example, one mother who lost her child to a |
| direction in my life. I was completely lost , at a | | | | drunk driver formed Mothers Against Drunk |
| real crossroads, and in tremendous pain. I felt that | | | | Drivers (MADD), an organization that has saved |
| there had to be something better than this. So I | | | | many lives. Helen Keller used a lack of sight or |
| decided to choose something better for myself. | | | | hearing to teach the rest of us important lessons |
| (Notice that I did not know what to choose, but I | | | | about living. Nelson Mandela spent half his life in |
| knew what I did not want, which was my first | | | | prison trying to bring peace to South Africa yet |
| step.) | | | | emerged from his prison cell to lead his country |
| First thing I did was to stop drinking and drugging, | | | | as its first post-apartheid president. |
| get a job, and start looking for a way out, which | | | | The next time you perceive something as really |
| was not easy for a 22-year old. Boy, did I feel | | | | bad, try and remember it could also be just |
| sorry for myself. Looking back nearly 30 years | | | | another gift in disguise. It's all in the way you look |
| later, what seemed like the end of the world was | | | | at it. |
| actually the beginning of a whole new life, which I | | | | "There are no mistakes, no coincidences; all |
| might never have found had I not crashed and | | | | events are blessings given to us to learn from." |
| burned at such a young age. I am now living a life | | | | -Elisabeth Kubler-Ross |
| I never could have even imagined when I was 22. | | | | "Every adversity contains an equal or greater |
| Finding Opportunities within Challenges | | | | benefit. |