Obstacles

Today I slept in a bit and I wasn't sure why, except that I needed it. All my life I have gotten around 5-6 hours of sleep, it has only been the past 10 years or so that I realized how bad, that little of sleep can be for your body. I just realized then, that it is important to sleep because that is when your body can truly heal. I know, most of you are going to say that you knew that all along...I didn't. You see I believed that  there needed to be even more hours in the day to get what I needed to be done, there were too many obstacles to go around in just 24 hours, I needed more time.

Even as I write this I am smiling, how wrong I was. There is more than enough time in each day to accomplish what we need, the problem was that I had priorities so mixed up and for some reason thought that I had to DO IT ALL! Too bad that with age comes wisdom, I could have used it years ago.

I had the privilege of speaking to another survivor today, what a treat it was to meet her (over the phone) she had a wonderful spirit and yet a fighter in her and so ...we connected. Funny how you can take complete strangers and have them both experience the same thing and all of a sudden...they are connected. Neat huh? She had her surgery about 2 months before mine, at a different hospital and all. It was interesting to hear her experience and to see the difference between mine. Life is like that, for some reason, it makes you feel better and not alone, to realize that just one other person on earth has gone through the same thing, and when you realize that...suddenly you have HOPE.

I found this story that I have used in my motivational speeches before about Obstacles, and realized that I needed to read and remember it again, since lately I have been running up against a lot of obstacles lately. I had a much clearer picture today of life and what I need to do and learn from all of this. I was grateful for today especially since yesterday was so TOUGH.

I need to head to bed but will leave you with this story and a few quotes. Thanks again for all of your support and prayers, they make such a difference in my life.

"If you can find a path with no obstacles, it probably doesn't lead anywhere."    ___ Frank A. Clark

                                 Obstacles

The Obstacle in Our Path In ancient times, a king had a boulder placed on a roadway. Then he hid himself and watched to see if anyone would remove the huge rock. Some of the king's wealthiest merchants and courtiers came by and simply walked around it. Many loudly blamed the king for not keeping the roads clear, but none did anything about getting the big stone out of the way. Then a peasant came along carrying a load of vegetables. On approaching the boulder, the peasant laid down his burden and tried to move the stone to the side of the road. After much pushing and straining, he finally succeeded. As the peasant picked up his load of vegetables, he noticed a purse lying in the road where the boulder had been. The purse contained many gold coins and a note from the king indicating that the gold was for the person who removed the boulder from the roadway. The peasant learned what many others never understand. Every obstacle presents an opportunity to improve one's condition.

"Life's up and downs provide windows of opportunity to determine your values and goals. Think of using all obstacles as stepping stones to build the life you want."    ____Marsha Sinetar

P.S. Ok, this photo is a bit extreme to go with the story ,but my obstacles yesterday...did seem that big ....to me!   ( no, this is not one of Lauren's photos either)