Is your Life a resting place or a testing place?

There are many reasons to bring this to you tonight.
Some old, some new, some recent, and those
that are all too frequent and familiar.

I’m sure you’ve had moments where you’ve
thought that things just couldn’t get any worse.
Murphy’s Law, right? “Anything that can go wrong, will.”
Or how about: “When it rains, it pours”  and
“If it wasn’t for bad luck, I’d have no luck at all!”

I think we get to a point where our blessings and all
that we have fade and become taken for granted
because a few immediate and pressing problems
draw our attention and focus away from them.
It’s like holding up a ping pong ball.
Doesn’t look so big, right?
Now close one eye, then bring the ping pong ball
closer to your open eye. Closer… closer… closer…
See how the ping  pong ball A.K.A. “problem”
gets bigger and bigger and bigger -
until soon it’s all you can see?

Yes.  Many of our challenges in Life are like that.

So, when I was about 23 years old I heard a very
wealthy man jokingly say something very wise.
“No matter how bad you think you’ve got it,
there’s always somebody else who’s got it worse.”
(Thanks Bill!)
Not sure about you, but I’ve spent a lot of time and energy
lamenting about that which I do not have, have not done, etc.
“I cried because I had no shoes
Until I saw a man who had no feet.”

So I went looking for people
who “had it worse” than I do.

Helen Keller – deaf blind mute
Franklin D. Roosevelt – polio
Ludwig van Beethoven – deaf & asthma
Michael Bolton – deaf in one ear
Stevie Wonder – blind
Ray Charles – blind
Andrea Bocelli – blind
Elizabeth Taylor – asthma
Bob Hope – asthma
Alice Cooper – asthma
Kenny G. – asthma
Billy Joel – asthma
Liza Minelli – asthma
Peter the Great – asthma
Amy Winehouse – bipolar
Axl Rose – bipolar
Julius Caesar – epilepsy
Richard Burton – epilepsy
Isaac Newton – epilepsy, stutter
Pythagoras – epilepsy
Tchaikovsky – epilepsy
Elton John – epilepsy
Neil Young – epilepsy
Robin Williams – ADHD
Stephen Hawking – Lou Gehrigs Disease / ALS:
paralyzed & needs a computer to speak.
Thomas Edison – deafness, learning disability & diabetes
(I didn’t list the very long list of other famous people with diabetes.)

And here’s a short list of people you may recognize that
didn’t let their dyslexia dictate what they could or couldn’t do:

Agatha Christie – English mystery writer
Albert Einstein – Scientist, philosopher
Alexander Graham – Bell Inventor
Bruce Jenner – U.S. Olympic Gold Medalist
Charles Schwab – Founder of investment brokerage
Cher – Entertainer, actress
Danny Glover – Actor
George Burns – Actor, comedian
George Patton – Military General
Greg Louganis – U.S. Olympic Gold Medalist
Hans Christian Andersen – Author
Harry Anderson – Actor, magician, comedian
Harry Belafonte – Singer, actor, entertainer
Henry Ford – Inventor, humanitarian,
Henry Winkler – Actor, director, humanitarian
Jackie Stewart – Race car driver
John Corcoran – Real estate millionaire
Leonardo Da Vinci – Renaissance artist, sculptor, painter
Lindsay Wagner – Actress, author, “The Bionic Woman”
Magic Johnson – Professional athlete
Nelson Rockefeller – Former U.S. vice president & governor of NY
Nolan Ryan – Professional athlete
Ozzy Osbourne – Rock music star
Quentin Tarantino – Film director, writer
Stephen Bacque – Entrepreneur of the Year, 1998
Thomas Edison – Inventor, scientist
Thomas H. Kean – President of Drew University & former governor
Tom Cruise – Actor (and he’s kind of short, if you didn’t know)
Tom Smothers – Comedian (Smothers Brothers)
Tracey Gold – Actress
Walt Disney – Cartoonist, visionary founder of Disneyland/Disneyworld
Whoopi Goldberg – Actress
William B. Yeats – Poet, dramatist, Nobel prize winner
William James – Psychologist, philosopher
Winston Churchill – Former Prime Minister of Britain
Woodrow Wilson – Former president of the United States

These days, there seems to be a label for every hiccup and glitch that shows up on the map of humanity, and this subject is a much deeper one than I have the time for right now.  But let’s pick a popular one:
ADHD.  I don’t think I could go a week without hearing someone claim some form of this one as the reason they can’t do this, can’t do that, and won’t even try.
Well, I’m sure these people are glad they didn’t hide behind their ADHD “limitation” and did what they could do:
Richard Branson
Henry Winkler
Leonardo da Vinci
Michael Phelps
John F. Kennedy
Channing Tatum
Pete Rose
Terry Bradshaw
Woody Harrelson
Howie Mandel
Bill Gates
Ty Pennington
Adam Levine
Jim Carrey
Justin Timberlake
Paris Hilton
James Carville
Ryan Gosling

And I even took a look at many successful people who have come from abusive families, poverty, and have even had to live on the streets before they “made it”.
Do a quick Google search of Rags to Riches stories.
You’ll be surprised where some people have come from and the obstacles they’ve overcome to get to where they are!

And here I am.
I had dinner tonight, and I didn’t have to stand in a food line to get it, or worse, not have any dinner at all.
I am sitting in a heated residence typing to you; there is shelter, heat, electricity, internet, and phone.
The family is as snug as bugs in rugs; safe and sound.
Tomorrow morning I will go outside and start a reliable car.
I have always been able to find adequate work to pay the bills.
My health is outstanding, and my sense of humor continues to be FANTASTIC. (not a word out of the peanut gallery :p )
There is a huge connection between those two, by the way.
(Humor & Health)

SO… I think I’ll end my little thought of the day
by repeating a question someone asked me recently;

“How are you doing today ?”
I looked up, looked back at him and answered:
“Well, all things considered – pretty darn good.”

It’s when we don’t consider the “all things”
that we may have a different answer…

What is the “handicap” in your life
that keeps you from achieving your dreams -
…and is it worth hanging onto?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gc4HGQHgeFE