One man's bad day can be another man's good day.

Some days are really bad days, in fact bad day’s sometime turn into bad weeks and even bad months. You know it’s funny – An old thought says that things in life are all relative to the person going through the event or situation. And it is so true; there are some things in life that affect each of us in different ways. But I have to tell you, there are some things that seem so small and trivial to some, but may be of an unremitting magnitude to someone else.

But sometimes you really do need to step back, or have an out of body experience, and really evaluate what is upsetting you or bothering you at that very moment. I know when I feel blue, or get down in the mouth about something, I really have to pick myself up by the boot straps and reevaluate what is important.

You think you’ve got it bad? Well how about this:

 Stephanie discovered that she had a malignant tumor with a 15% chance of survival. Surprisingly she has worked hard to stay healthy all her life, never smoked or drank in your life and the doctor said it was a rare condition. She had to bare the pain of telling her ten year old son that he would be an orphan anytime soon. She was emotionally disfigured, but she decided she would make the best of a horrible, horrible situation. And she did just that. She spends every moment being the best mother she can be, and probably the most positive, happy human being I have ever seen.  She was always smiled, and cheered with such compassion; you could tell that her every move and action was genuinely sincere.

If there is nothing else in the world, I hope that one day everyone can be as kind and sincere as Stephanie. To share the world and this little place we call earth with a few more smiles and a lot less anger and malice.

So when you are feeling down, or your feelings are hurt, or you don’t feel well and you just want that stomach bug to go away so you can get back to normal, think about some of the pain and anguish that Stephanie must have gone through knowing she can never gain “normalcy” back in her life again.

And as far as things getting back to normal, what if you had something so tragic in your life happen that you will never be back to “normal,” so to speak, but you won’t go down without a fight? That is the inspiration and footprint that Gabrielle “Gabby” Gifford has left on my heart. With the tragedy that she endured, and the fact that she is even alive, let alone able to sit upright, speak, write and progressively gaining full function of all motor skills, is a miracle in itself.

A few months ago, I watched an interview with her and her husband, and even though at that point her thoughts and vocabulary were extremely limited, just the smile on her sweet face, the love and commitment her husband had for her, and her will to fight and bring normalcy back into her life was a true turning point in my life.

As I have said before, I am only human, I am not numb to the outside world; there are goings on that occur that hurt my feelings, or things happen that may not go exactly as I planned, but when I find myself getting too wrapped up in the petty stuff of daily life, I make myself step back and look at the big picture.

I am happy, healthy, I have great friends, a loving family and I have a beautiful future to look forward to. My freedom is a gift that I will never take for granted, and I thank God every single day; and I have never been giving a speech, where I was shot in the head and wasn’t sure I was going to survive; and now fighting to bring my life back to some semblance of what it used to be. For the most part I live a fairly simple life, my contribution to the world might be diminutive, but I love every minute of it, and I try to not allow myself to get too tangled up in or upset by “sweating the small stuff.”

So no matter how good or bad you think life is, wake up each day and be thankful for life. Someone somewhere else is fighting to survive.