Count your blessings

Count your blessings.

Outside the gym recently, I met a man who looked like a movie star.

He was handsome and smiling, about 50-years-old, 6 ft. 2 in. with thick brown graying hair. His upper body was muscular and trim and he appeared to be on top of the world.

“How are you,” I asked with a smile. “I’m doing really well,” he replied in a deep baritone voice his enthusiasm and big smile and booming voice lighting up the parking garage.

But as he walked-up, I noticed his long legs were thin and I saw he had a silver cane.

“Why do you need that cane,” I uttered thinking he had a minor workout injury. “I have MS,” he answered in a cheery voice, as his broad smile never left his face.

Multiple Sclerosis is a very serious disease and often painful and debilitating. I looked at him from my little red sports car and said, “You handle it very well. You seem like a happy man despite the MS.”

Without losing a beat or his smile he replied, “I am a happy man,” and added with a chuckle, “I’d be even happier if I had that sports car.”

It was ironic. Just before we spoke, I’d been sitting in that little sports car brooding about having a sore left heal over the last 11-months (Plantar Fasciitis), and that I’m recovering from a surgically repaired left shoulder.

Here’s a man with a situation far tougher than mine, and his positive attitude put it in perspective. He’d come to grips with his severe problem and was not going to let it interfere with his enjoyment of his life.

It was also a wonderful reminder of that old saying, “I cried because I had no shoes. Then I met a man who had no feet.”

Whatever your problems, just remember none of us goes through life unscathed and like the man with MS, make the most of what you have. Count your blessings.