Changes, Challenges, and Choices

          Choices are new every day!  When an unanticipated change hits you – you have the option to make a monumental difference in your life.  You try to avoid detours and disasters.  Although the choice might seem insignificant, it could pave the way for a positive outcome, and you could capitalize on the opportunities presented in your life. Play the best hand possible with the cards you were dealt.

          As Tony Robbins put it, “Your life changes the moment you make a new, congruent, and committed decision.”

          As each move brought about more changes for my family and me, I was blessed with a dad who did not know a stranger and would consistently approach everything with a “can do” attitude.  During his childhood, he was a sickly child who, at the age of two, had several surgeries to cut out infection in his right arm, evidenced by two gaping scars.  There were no options at that time as antibiotics were just being discovered, and the public didn’t have access to them until the 1930s.  He tried to enlist for World War II but was turned away because of this large scar.  They told him if he were to get shot he would likely loose his arm.

During several projects, significant obstacles were placed in front of him.  For instance, when mapping the rugged and pristine Grand Tetons in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, most of the job had to be completed using horses or helicopters.  He loved helicopters, so that part was fun, but when it came to horses, he was not well versed.  One particular day, while a team of surveyors and rodmen (assistants to help with transportation of equipment) rode horseback up one of the peaks, dad’s horse suddenly, without any notice at all, fell asleep – immediately falling to the ground with dad propelling himself off.  The trail foreman said that it occasionally happens when a horse becomes highly fatigued.  Let me say dad milked that story for a good laugh for months to come.  But dad also felt blessed that he was not caught underneath the horse when it went down.  Check out more about Grand Teton National Park at https://www.nps.gov/grte/index.htm

           A quote by Joshua J. Marine states, “Challenges are what make life interesting; overcoming them is what makes life meaningful.”  This quote is so accurate.  My mom repeatedly shared a saying during my informative years – “adversity builds character.”  She said, “if everything were given to us, we would be a boring person.  Our personality and character develop from the challenges we face, our experiences, and the happenings throughout our lives.

          I want to close this blog by saying I welcome anyone who would like to reach out to me and share your changes and challenges.  I hope that through my blog, I can shed some light on and alleviate the complex challenges that you may be facing.  At least make them easier to swallow.

          Blessings!