Attitude Adjustments: One Moment at a time.

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Until we become the "master of our thoughts," we do not have total control over what life, unexpectedly, throws our way from time to time. However, we do have total control over our attitude. Life fires at us at point blank range, one moment at a time. If you " live in the moment" it is easy to make the necessary attitude adjustments when life throws an, unexpected "curve ball" your way.

A good example, yesterday:

I took my 91 year old Dad to see my 85 year old mother who is in a "nursing home" because she can no longer stand or walk on her own. When we arrived there, she wasn't there. Dad panicked and thought she had died. I calmed him down and said; "if she had died they would have called us. I will go find out where she is......"

It turned out that she was at a clinic getting an IV/IG treatment to help her walk again. She get these treatments every month but this time they forgot to notify us. I took Dad to the clinic to see mom and then the fun really began.

Immediately, I adjusted my attitude and started seeing this whole thing unfolding like a situation comedy that you might see on the "Jefferson's" or on an episode of "Everyone Loves Raymond"....

When my mom is hurting, she is no fun to be around. She is like an angry Queen Bee and who can blame her. She was glad to see us but she wanted to know, in a demanding way, how long we would be there because she wanted me to take her out for a smoke to calm her nerves.

Before I could respond, the FIRE ALARM went off. The place was packed with patients hooked up to IV treatments for a variety of illnesses ranging from cancer to CIPH along with family members there to support them, maybe a 100 people in all plus a staff of ten medical professionals.

The look in my Dad's eye told me that he was panicking again... Once more I calmed him down. The nurse announced; "remain where you are, it is probably just a false alarm." Sixty seconds later she announced that everyone had to EVACUATED THE BUILDING IMMEDIATELY..... now panic is really taking over my dad... I calmed him down once again....


50 Senior Citizens (plus 50 family members and staff) are trying to get out of the building as fast they they can dragging their IV poles behind them. As I am working on getting my mother into a wheelchair and getting her and dad out of the building, my mind is looking to see what my options are. As a former volunteer fireman I knew some things about dealing with fire.

The first thing I did was to see if I could smell or see smoke; that would tell me if the danger was close by. I could neither smell or see smoke and concluded I have time.... I then looked for the closest exit, fortunately one was very close. Unfortunately, it was blocked with people trying to get out of the building in an orderly fashion. I spotted a window and a heavy metal chair. If "worse come to worst", I thought to myself, I would throw the chair through the window and carry both mom and dad out of the building on my shoulders.

Suddenly, the exit door became unblocked and I started to take mom and dad out of the building through the exit door. And at that very moment, the nurse announced; "everyone can return now, it was just a FALSE ALARM after all...."

After the incident, my mother had 15 minutes left to complete her treatment so I said to her:

"Do you still want that cigarette to calm your nerves. If you do, I'll take you outside after your treatment is complete so you can have your cigarette."

She said; "that would be terrific....only one problem, I left my cigarettes back at the nursing home, I have no cigarettes on me." For some reason, what she said struck me funny, I almost burst out in laughter......

With everyone safe and sound, once again, I left mom and dad at the clinic and drove six miles (round-trip) to buy her a pack of cigarettes... She smoked her cigarette and we stayed with her until the wheelchair van from the nursing home came to pick her up. We told her we loved her, kissed her good-bye and told her we would see her on Friday.

All is well that end wells.

And because I was able to see humor in a potentially danger situation by adjusting my attitude, quickly, it wasn't as upsetting to me as it was to other people and my "attitude adjustment" allowed me to think more clearly.

In life, attitude is everything and the ability to adjust our attitude to the "curve balls" life throws our way is the best thing.

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