|
BREAKING OUT OF JAIL
By: Terry L. Sumerlin
One of the fringe benefits of doing “enrichment lectures” for Princess Cruises is that, at various times, Sherry and each of our children have accompanied me. We’ve had wonderful times together.
Once, when our youngest daughter, Amanda, was with me she asked a question that has sort of stuck with me. The conversation took place some years ago but, if my memory serves me correctly, it took place while we were having breakfast in the beautiful Horizon Court of the Sun Princess. She suddenly asked, “Dad, do you feel old?”
I was so taken back, all I could say was, “WHAT DO YOU MEAN ‘Do I feel old?’” “Well, you are getting up there,” she replied. Of course, to someone who at the time was in her early twenties I guess everyone over thirty was “getting up there.”
The thought was planted, though. Somewhat like the golfer whose friend asked on the tee box, “Do you inhale or exhale at the top of your swing?”, her question pops into my mind at odd moments. Recently, I thought of it while writhing in pain. It all started innocently enough, while I was at Mom’s house tending to her dog, while she was in the hospital.
I’m never quite sure if her chow is going to lick me or devour me. Normally, when feeding him, I open the sliding glass door just enough to permit me to stand in the opening and drop his food in the dish. That way he doesn’t slip through the door and into the living room. This particular day, I had to go completely outside to check his water bowl at the back of the house. When I returned to the door – surprise! I’d locked myself out! The key I had would not unlock that door, and there was a pad lock on the gate to the fence. I was in jail!
Figuring that no one I could call on the cell phone would be able unlock the gate, I began to plan my escape. It would be a simple matter of climbing on top the dog house and then to the top of the six foot privacy fence. From there I would leap to the ground.
I never knew that a six foot drop gave you so much air time. It was while in the air that I began to think, “This is really a stupid idea.” Suddenly, as my fall came to an abrupt stop, the thought changed to, “This is a PAINFULLY stupid idea.” I had injured my left heel and right knee. Great! “How long will I be laid up?” immediately became the burning question.
Fortunately, the knee healed in a day or two. Several weeks after the incident my heel is still sore. It, too, will heal and the injury will be forgotten.
What won’t be forgotten are a couple of lessons. First of all, the next time risk is involved I’ll factor in ability and age versus benefits. And, though at fifty something, I won’t be putting arbitrary limits on what I can and can’t do, I will consider that injury is often more likely and longer lasting than when I was twenty. Secondly, I’ll remember that while it may be true that age is mind over matter (and that if you don’t mind it doesn’t matter), a corollary “barber-osophy” is equally true.
BARBER-OSOPHY: When it comes to our health, if we fail to use the mind to take care of the matter, age will matter sooner than we think.
Copyright 2004, Sumerlin Enterprises
Permission is granted to reprint this article as long as a link to www.barber-osophy.com is included.
About the Author
Terry L. Sumerlin, known as the Barber-osopher, is the author of "Barber-osophy," and is a columnist for the San Antonio Business Journal. He speaks nationally as a humorist/motivational speaker. Visit his website at www.Barber-osophy.com.
Return to Index
email this
page
Still haven't found what you are
looking for?
Try this search:
Free Email
List Reveals health,
fitness and wellness
tips - secrets and information - delivered directly to
your inbox
How to Benefit from the Mind-Body Connection
(excerpt)
You are about to gain insight into the
mind-body connection. The number of
people who truly understand these principles on our
planet are relatively few.
There is an undeniable connection between our minds and
bodies, you can learn
to use this fact to your benefit.
Dr. Bernie Siegel, author of "Love, Medicine and
Miracles" was once a
distraught cancer surgeon until he
began to understand the greater principles
of the mind-
body connection. He felt dragged down by the artificial
barriers
that existed between patient and doctor, and the
helplessness he often felt as
a result of his inability
to effectively serve those patients. Eventually, those
barriers
were disintegrated by Dr. Siegel's recognition
and growing understanding of the
mind-body connection and
how it could serve his patients and himself.
Dr. Siegel, or Bernie as he began to have his patients
refer to him, had some
startling realizations as a cancer surgeon. He found that
there were actually
quite a few people in the world that successfully beat
the statistics on cancer
survival. He began to recognize that a patient's ability
to defeat something as
serious as cancer had to do with the patient's mind and
attitude about their
disease.
If you would like to see the rest of
this article, please go here:
http://www.tobeinformed.com/repository/mind-body.html
copyright 2004 - David Snape
|
|