With Autumn basically here now, I’m contemplating the summer that just passed, which was the largest time of change in my adult life to date. I can’t help thinking how different my attitude towards adversity is than it was several months ago. Adversity is an opportunity to change things in yourself that you don’t like, to learn something new about you. Sure I’ve got a few new gray hairs that I didn’t have before, but I also am lighter, leaner, and have much better perspective about where I am and where I want to go.

Three weeks ago, I went to the doctor complaining about some pain I've been having in my side. The doctor took some X-Rays, and informed me that I had something in one of my lungs. I would have to get a CAT scan of my chest to see what it was. God I was scared. I was a smoker, I worked for an environmental engineering company that oversaw asbestos removal projects for a year, it could be anything the doctor said, it could be scar tissue, it could be a shadow in the xray, he didn't mention the other thing it could be because he didn't have to. I had to wait a whole week for the appointment. One of the longest weeks of my life.

They put me in this machine and ran this solution through my body that made me fell warm all over. it was over in about fifteen minutes, then I had to wait two days for the results. Two very long days. Finally, the doctor told me that it was nothing, a shadow in the xray perhaps. If you smoke cigarettes, think for a minute about what could happen to you as a result.