Filling ourselves the right way..!

Thursday, July 28, 2011 - Haven’t you got diabetes? I asked the visitor who had come to my home for lunch yesterday, him as bit into a bar of chocolate bar. “Yes,” he said, “but Bob then you shouldn’t have left this chocolate slab lying around like this, I can’t resist temptation!” I recall reading that a man from the USA opted to have surgery in order to lose weight. So he went to a hospital, and had his stomach stapled — a procedure that reduced the size of his stomach so he couldn’t eat as much.A couple of days after surgery he sneaked down the hospital corridors to the kitchen. There he raided the refrigerator and ate so much that his staples burst. He filed a lawsuit against the hospital: He claimed it was the hospital’s fault. They should have locked the refrigerator! He wanted to make other people responsible for what he put into his mouth.

Which raises the question: who decides what we bring into our lives? One man told me, “I’m not a garbage truck.” “What do you mean by that?” I asked him.“I mean that sometimes other people want to dump their garbage on me,” he said. “They fill themselves up with negativity and complaints and want to dump all of that garbage on me. I’m not going to take all of their garbage. They may need to get rid of it, but not all over me.”

He believes people need to be responsible for their lives. And that’s probably true for the good stuff, too. For me, that includes just about everything. It means I am responsible for everything I put into my mouth, but also for everything I choose to watch and hear. Some of it’s good and some of it’s garbage. It even means everything that comes into my head through my eyes and ears. It’s also about everything that fills up my time. Everything.

And to be honest, I don’t always do a great job with everything that comes into my life. But I am clear that what I allow in is up to me, not somebody else. When we fill our bodies with the right foods, they perform well. When we fill our heads with learning, they won’t easily stagnate.

When we fill our minds with healthier attitudes, we will have a better outlook. When we fill our hearts with a little more courage, we will be able to face life with confidence.

When we fill our talk with more gratitude, we will be happier. When we fill our lives with more love, we will never be alone. Only we can decide how to fill ourselves up.The visitor who ate the chocolate bar at my home has gone home, but I hope he reads this piece and follows what’s written, like I’m sure you my reader are going to do, right?

—Email:bobsbanter@gmail.com