LIFE CAN MAKE US BETTER OR BITTER

This morning started with me waking up at 3:30am, after only 2½-hours of sleep. So I decided to get up to start my day. A quick shower, checking that my luggage had everything, a quick minute with the puppies, and out the door to the airport at 5am. Only 10-minutes from home I get a text – and since few of my friends are functional at that ridiculous hour, I glanced down to see who it was from. Uh oh – a text from United Airlines. Pulling over I read that my flight is delayed 2 hours, meaning I will miss my connecting in Denver. CRAP!

   Not sure what to do, I get back on the road to the airport.

I bought my ticket through Priceline (since going to the Nauvoo Pageant is just a fun personal trip), but I ask "Siri" to call United – and few minrtutes later I am talking to Agent Tom and explaining my situation. He can get me to Kansas City by 7pm – but I would miss the Pageant tonight, so I ask what other options he can find. (Being uber nice always helps!) After a few minutes of research, he sees that he can get me on a direct Delta flight – and I arrive only 10 minutes later than planned. WHEW! (Besides, I usually fly Delta and prefer it.)

  Well, I’m now at the airport 3 hours early, so I slow down and enjoy the morning. As I park, the sun is coming up over the mountains to the east – so I sit in my car and enjoy the sunrise. I walk to the Delta counter to check-in because there’s something wrong with my iPhone App – and they put me on the Upgrade List for an aisle seat. Oh, and they check my bag for free (so why not, and not have to drag it through the airport). And I see a Noni Friend checking in as I walk to Security – then at Security I run into 4 other Noni Friends. Ironically, we are all flying out of the same gate – they’re just an hour ahead of me. So we have an hour to grab breakfast together and sit and visit. FUN!

   Then as I get up to buy Bottled Water I notice that my name says UP on the screen, so I talk to the Gate Agent to see if I got the requested Aisle – and she said that I’d been upgraded to First Class.  SCORE!

   So, my morning that started crappy with no sleep and a flight delay turned into: a sunrise, breakfast with friends, a better flight, and first class. (Plus later that afternoon I dodge another speeding ticket!)

   Traveling so frequently I get to see all sorts of people. And I can always tell the families on their way to Disneyland. Then there area those grumpy people who cut you off in line or complain loudly and angrily to some poor employee about some minor inconvenience.

   Yes, there are all sorts of people, with all sorts of Attitudes – and Attitude is the difference. We all have challenges in our lives, and how we decide face them is a choice. When life happens TO us, as it sometimes does, we can choose to let it make us better or make us bitter.

   I could curl up in bed, pull the covers over my head, say “Poor Me” – and no one would blame me one bit. But instead I choose to get out and live the most amazing life I can live. I spend time with the fabulous friends I have been blessed with. I find fun places to go and fun thing to do – and I go DO them.

   And sometimes, along the course of life, we draw blessings into our lives – like for me this morning. Call it “Law of Attraction” or “Blessings from Heaven” – call it whatever you want. I believe our Attitude drives our Choices, and our Choices determine our Destiny. So far I've done pretty good keeping a positive Attitude, and in return I have been blessed with an abundance of experiences, good and bad – and I choose to have those experiences that make me better, and not bitter.

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY, MOM & DAD!

Today would have been 78 years.

Lela & Dale Roe

My parents grew up together. Went to Elementary School together. Skipped 7^th Grade together. Graduated from Preston High in 1933, together. And on July 7, 1936, they asked my mom’s step-father to drive them to Logan, they went to the temple together and were Sealed for Time and Eternity, and then went home. No fancy clothes, no reception, no one with them – and not even one photograph from that day. It was the middle of the Depression – they wanted to get married, so they got married. It was that simple.

   They were married 63-years when my mother passed away, and Dad missed her every-single-day until he joined her 5 years later. He literally couldn’t remember his life without her in it. And I never had any doubt that my dad absolutely LOVED & ADORED my mom. I knew it, she knew it, and everyone that knew them knew it.

   Not that life was easy for them. They got married during the Depression, and then WWII came along. They were married 10 years before they were able to have any children, and when my brother Michael was 4-years-old he was hit by a drunk driver right in front of their house – leaving them again childless. About a year later my sister Fran came along, and when she was 13-years-old they decided to adopt me. They had lots of ups-and-downs – like everyone does, but they came from an era where people understood what marriage really means and they always worked things out because that was the only option they could even imagine.

   I am grateful for amazing parents that loved each other and loved me. I am grateful for an amazing example of what Love and Dedication can really be. It can still be like that. Anyone can have that. My parents had that because they wanted it – and they worked at it, every single day.