There once was a young woman whose adult life had been wonderful. She had married the man of her dreams and had two wonderful children. She had a successful career and a fabulous social life. In fact, everywhere she looked, all she saw was beauty and all the good things life had to offer.
She really couldn’t understand how anyone could see life differently. She would often judge others for complaining about life and think to herself, “Well, you have the power to change that. Make different choices”.
This all changed one fateful day when she headed into work only to find strange cars parked outside the building.
She walked in and immediately felt a chill in the air. Something was wrong.
Before she got to her office, she heard her boss call out to her.
She walked to his office, only to find 3 serious looking individuals sitting opposite him.
Her boss asked her to sit down and was then promptly told that the company was going into receivership and she was losing her job.
This woman looked at the individuals and then back at her boss. She felt numb. Lose her job? What did that mean?
She was told that she would have to finish up in 4 weeks and during that time she would have to cooperative with the administrators.
She walked to her office and called her husband. Telling him the news only reinforced this shattering feeling.
What would she do?
She drove home that night, still numb with shock. How would they pay the bills? What if she didn’t get another job?
She walked into the house to find the children running up to her for a hug. Only this time, instead of joyously embracing them, she brushed them off.
Life sucked! She thought to herself.
Her husband tried to cheer her up, but this only aggravated her more and she became snappier and angrier.
The weeks went on and her mood only darkened.
Everywhere she looked there were people being rude, the weather was either too cold, too hot, too windy or there was too much rain, and she was always getting the red lights or being cut off in traffic.
She was constantly caught up in long queues wherever she went with screaming babies, and she always had a headache.
Her final day at work came and went and she was suddenly jobless with nothing to do.
Her friends tried to cheer her up, invite her out or send her flowers. But nothing changed her mood.
On one particularly stormy day she sat on the couch looking out the window of her living room. The clouds were rolling in and she could feel the impending onslaught of rain that was to hit their home.
She couldn’t understand how others around her could be so happy. Life sucked! She thought.
As she sat there, wallowing in her misery she noticed a light begin to shine through from a window on the opposite side of the room.
She glanced over and as she looked out the window she saw the sun shining on the bright coloured flowers in her garden. How could this be? She asked herself.
She looked over at the other window where she still saw the looming dark clouds ready to open up with torrential rain.
She looked back at the sunlight window where the beautifully coloured flowers looked even more vibrant with the warmth of the sun’s light.
She looked back and forth a few times and then something occurred to her.
She could choose which window she would look out of. Both were real, both existed but she had a choice on which she would spend her time looking out of.
She choose to spend a few more moments looking at the looming clouds, all the while knowing she could change her view at any time.
Eventually she took a deep breath, moved the couch and spent the rest of the day looking out the sunlit window. She knew that the storm was behind her as she choose to see the beauty in the world.
Eventually the storm passed, barely hitting their home.
The children came home from school and her husband came home from work.
She embraced her children and her husband with a peaceful joy and realised that she always had a choice on where she placed her attention. And by choosing one thing, it did not mean the other didn’t exist, it just meant that for this point in time, that was where her attention was. She had the power to choose and in making that choice, she took back her personal power and her sense of emotional wellbeing.
