Live with expectancy instead of expectation that’s the challenge I give in almost every presentation I make.  Smile and the world smiles with you!   Happy face, Happy place.  I write about it!  I challenge other people to live it!    But in a split second I can slip into the same old patterns I so badly want to shed.  

I had been traveling relentlessly and had just spent a sleepless night in a hotel room with an air conditioner that sounded like a pterodactyl with an abscessed tooth.  Now I was waiting to speak at an awards ceremony for KCARC, a wonderful caring organization dedicated to serving individuals with disabilities. A delayed flight had caused me to walk into the room just as the ceremony was beginning and I was in a nasty mood. 

Thank you to each of you who responded to my blog “Living Outside the box! Doing it when you don’t feel like it!” This is an important part of life that will be covered in my new book, “Fully Alive.”

If you haven’t read that blog and the comments my friends left, click on the link above and read the very inspiring stories of how my friends face difficult circumstances.

I promised to give you my response to the question, “How do you keep doing it when you don’t feel like it?”

So here it goes.

Are your dreams far away and undefined or within reach and rich with detail? I just spent a week with my youngest grandson, Tyler.  He is one of the most positive little people I have ever met.  His answer to almost everything is an enthusiastic “OKAY!”

“Want to climb a mountain?”

“OKAY!”

“Want to ride the four wheeler?”

“OKAY?”

There are some exceptions! I asked him if he wanted to get a flu shot and couldn’t find him for an hour.

Today was a tough day.  I lost my drivers license at the airport.  Didn’t realize it until I had cleared security.  I went back out to look for it and found it lying beneath the “check in kiosk.”  I discovered that if one goes through security twice one evidently becomes a national security risk. After much grumbling and lack of gratitude, (Helllooo! I did FIND my license!) I settled into my seat on the plane and read the following story.

After 50 years of service in Africa a weary missionary couple descended the gangplank of their boat.   Their disembarking was delayed by a throng of press and well-wishers welcoming president Theodore Roosevelt back from his most recent safari.  As they made their way through the crowd the husband expressed to his wife how discouraged he was.