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Universal Laws of Attraction: Make Lemonade out of your Lemons! – By Donna Himel
Monday, November 23rd, 2009
Play the hand you are dealt. It is amazing to see the difference in how people handle the hands they’ve been dealt.
Look at Oprah. Her accomplishments as a global media leader and philanthropist have established her as one of the most respected and admired public figures today. But life wasn’t like this for her always. Her mother worked as a maid cleaning houses, but at times had to rely of welfare to support the family. Also at the tender age of 9 and living in Milwaukee, Oprah and her siblings were left with their cousin to watch them, who was 19 at the time. It was this cousin who sexually abused Oprah for the first time — she was raped, and then taken out for ice cream and told to keep it a secret — which she did. She was again abused by a family friend and an uncle a couple of years later — ongoing abuse that she kept silent.
Compare her to others like Brittany Spears or Elvis Presley or Marilyn Monroe who seemingly have everything in life, but chose to make wrongful decisions and let their lives spiral out of control!
I remember hearing Wayne Dyer say that his father was his greatest teacher. Abandoned at an early age by his alcoholic father, he grew up in a series of foster homes and was separated from his siblings growing up. Because of his childhood, he says, he learned self-reliance and became the strong person he is today.
My father was also my greatest teacher. Abandoning my mother, sister and I when I was a baby, he went on to marry four or five times and never took responsibility for the children he fathered. I decided at a very early age that first of all, I wouldn’t allow alcohol to control my life and second that I would be a dedicated mother who would be there for my children as they grew up. While it was painful as a child and I lived with an immense fear of loss and abandonment for many years, I believe that all of that is what helped me to become the strong person I am today. Everything we encounter in our lives, however painful, only makes us stronger. We always have a choice to make different decisions from people in our lives and to not repeat patterns that may have been passed down through generations. It’s not what happens to us but what we do with what happens to us that matters.
Tony Robbins, world renowned motivational speaker, had a string of step fathers and a mother on assisted living. Jerry Hicks, co-author of Law of Attraction and other best-sellers, left home in his teens leaving a very abusive family behind and never looked back. Louise Hay, author of “You can Heal your Life”, was sexually abused as a child and went on to heal her cancer holistically and become a powerful leader of Hay House, the largest publisher of self-help books in the world. Sylvester Stallone was barely surviving but determined to sell his script, Rocky, to a screenwriter.
Take the lemons you’ve been given and make some delicious lemonade out of them. No matter what circumstances you have come from or how painful your childhood was, you can overcome anything and become whoever you desire and are determined to become. Quit complaining and be thankful for the lessons that your experiences have given you and how strong you have become because of them.
