Reflections:The Power Of Attitude

             

By Leena Pekkalainen:

When my brother and I were children, we spent a few weeks each summer in the countryside. Our childless uncle owned a big house there and didn´t mind having children around, so of course our parents were happy to let us visit him for a few days at a time.

  Our uncle was a geologist and he loved to go on long walks to find stones for his collection at the university.  More often than not, we followed him. He had a housekeeper who could cook like an angel and always gave uncle big basket full of good food for those trips. We didn´t mind sharing those goodies, and we eagerly awaited those excursions.

   One day we left early and this time uncle had bought us backpacks. “You can help me carry the samples,” he explained.  “Sure. Why not?” 

The whole day we walked around the countryside and every now and again uncle put stones in our bags. We were surprised when he also took some stones out from our bags at times, but figured he had just found better samples than the ones we already had.

  Still, when we reached the house in the late afternoon, we were beat. The backpacks were so heavy we heaved big sigh of relief when we thumped them on the porch. Yet, uncle´s backpack was nearly empty.

  “Why did you give us so many stones?” we asked.

  “I didn´t. You did,” he said cryptically.  He waited for a while before continuing.

“You did not know it, but I made you go through a little attitude test today.”

“What do you mean with attitude test?” we wanted to know.

 “It is something someone once did to me—and I shall always remember it. You see I listened to every word you said, and whenever you were complaining about anyone or anything, I added a stone to your bags. Whenever you talked about something with a grateful and positive attitude, I took a stone out of your packs. Now look at your backpacks.”

  We did. They were almost bursting at their seams.

  “I hope you remember this little attitude test. You see, your negative thoughts are like stones. You carry them in your mind just like those stones in your backpack. The more negative thoughts, the heavier your mind is. A positive thought, however, cancels a negative one. So take another look at those bags and start paying attention to what you say and how you say it.”

  This little lesson was one of the most important I ever learned, and I remember uncle with great love for teaching us one of the most important lessons in life—the power of attitude.