People have asked me in the past, “Why are you so positive all the time?”  or “Why do you seem so happy all the time?”  Or they will say, “You are always ‘up’ with your attitude.”  My usual response to these questions or statements is usually, “I don’t know.”

But perhaps I do know.  I was just thinking about this and it dawned on me that although my life is not always a bed of roses and that debt doesn’t surround me, but that life lives!  We each have our life and we each need to live it and live it to the fullest.  I have always told my kids and others who want (or don’t want) to listen, “You can do anything you want, when you want to do it!”  And I firmly believe that.  You CAN do anything you put your mind in to doing.  It’s not always easy, but if you really truely WANT whatever it is, then you can get it, or have it or achieve it.  And the older I get the more I realize, that, YA it might take longer than when I was younger, but I can still get there.

Last Fall I invited myself to go on a pretty long hike with my youngest son.  The hike is in Perry canyon and a man (who I have not met) made this trail, all by himself.  I picture an older man, maybe even older than me, with a shovel, pick, chainsaw and a jug of water, chunking away at the ground creating this wonderful trail.  It starts our pretty level and as it goes it gets steeper and winds its way up and up and up the hillside.  In fact this particular trail is nine miles long!  And goes to the top of Grizzly Peak!

It’s obvious that this man had a dream to create a very nice walking, bikeing path up the side of the canyon and to the top of that hill, where the view is magnificent!  Did he let something come between that dream and reality?  Not in the least!  And he did it all by himself!  Not only did he create that trail, he made another on the other side of the canyon and it too goes on and on and on.  Where to, I don’t know, but he did it and it goes somewhere that he wanted it to go.

Well on this particular hike that I invited myself on, I made it to mile marker 6.  Then I told my son, that was enough for me.  I told him, I know I can make it to the top, but I’m afraid I might not make it back down.  My shoes aren’t the best.  My health is not the best, but I made it to mile marker 6 and that wasn’t a cake walk.  He went on to the top, as I started my decent.

As I picked my way back down the trail, what to my amazement did I see coming up the trail towards me?  A man, about 40 or so, riding up that steep trail on a mountain bike!  I stepped to the side, greeted him and he greeted me back, and thanked me for allowing him to proceed so he did not have to stop pumping that bike up the trail!  Another man, showing himself that “he can do it”!  Later that same biker, passed me going down the hill.  My son did not see him, so he must have turned around somewhere between where I saw him first and the top.  I guess he too turned around at mile marker 6.

My son, caught up with me about where I would guess mile marker 3 would be if it were there and the two of us continued down to the vehicle.  He had literally ran up the last 3 miles to the top, and then ran back down to catch up with me.  Silly guy.

Do yourself a favor and go for a hike up that trail.  Take a snack and lots of water!

So there you have a story about 4 people who did what they wanted to do when they wanted to do it.  Me, 12 of 18 miles was plenty.  My son, who needed some alone time to think and because of me only got 9 of 18 miles of it.  The biker guy who I’m guessing only wanted to do 12 miles and did it.  And the man who made the trail in the first place.

And so, you have to keep a positive attitude about everything.  My father had had his first heart problem and was laying in intensive care with a “new at the time” artificial valve working to keep him alive.  We were all sitting in the waiting room thinking we had the worst thing in the whole world to deal with.  All of us feeling sorry for ourselves and for mom and dad and the world looked like doom and gloom.  About 2 a.m. in came a young family, a mom and a couple of kids I’d say 4 and 6 years old.  They were all scraped up and had some dirt in their hair.  They had been travelling and the dad fell asleep at the wheel and they rolled the car.  He was not expected to live.  The rest of them got out with barely any scrapes, no broken bones and only the wait to find out the fate of the dad.

After that day, my entire attitude changed to a positive one.  Sure we all have our times when we have a bad day, but once in awhile is not an every day thing.

So, the next time you think you have the worst of the worst looking down on you, open your eyes and look at the guy next to you.  I’ll bet he has it a lot worse than you.

Bears Butt

2011