Saving this for when I get gloomy.

This was sent to me today by a co-worker who is being laid-off on Monday. It's actually very good advice. So am saving it here, to remind myself of, whenever I get into another black mood.

Just a through I would like to leave with you about ATTITUDE, something we should all remember.

A 92-year-old, petite, well-poised and proud man, who is fully dressed each morning by eight o'clock, with his hair fashionably coiffed and shaved perfectly, even though he is legally blind, moved to a nursing home today. His wife of 70 years recently passed away, making the move necessary. After many hours of waiting patiently in the lobby of the nursing home, he smiled sweetly when told his room was ready.

As he maneuvered his walker to the elevator, I provided a visual description of his tiny room, including the eyelet sheets that had been hung on his window.

"I love it," he stated with the enthusiasm of an eight-year-old having just been presented with a new puppy.

"Mr. Jones, you haven't seen the room; just wait."

"That doesn't have anything to do with it," he replied.

"Happiness is something you decide on ahead of time. Whether I like my room or not doesn't depend on how the furniture is arranged ... it's how I arrange my mind. I already decided to love it. "It's a decision I make every morning when I wake up. I have a choice; I can spend the day in bed recounting the difficulty I have with the parts of my body that no longer work, or get out of bed and be thankful for the ones that do.

Each day is a gift, and as long as my eyes open, I'll focus on the new day and all the happy memories I've stored away. Just for this time in my life.

Old age is like a bank account. You withdraw from what you've put in.

So, my advice to you would be to deposit a lot of happiness in the bank account of memories! Thank you for your part in filling my Memory bank. I am still depositing." Remember the five simple rules to be happy:

1. Free your heart from hatred.
2. Free your mind from worries.
3. Live simply.
4. Give more.
5. Expect less.
6. Keep smiling (one extra rule from me).



[In retrospect feels a tad on the sentimental and cheesy side, which I'm normally allergic to, but for some reason this cheered me instead of making me roll my eyes.]

Lady in the Water

The reviewers and critics, from what I saw online and elsewhere, really do not like M. Night Shylaman's film Lady in the Water and their criticisms ironically are exactly the same as the network executive, who was recently fired by Disney, told Shylaman a year before the film was made. ( If you want to know what those comments were, see my post about four or five days ago on Lady, before I saw the film. Or just read the Entertainment Weekly review.)

Curious, I went to see the film for myself and did not wait for it to come out on DVD as I did with The Village. I've only seen two of Shylaman's films in the theater - the one listed above and the Sixth Sense and my favorite of the films remains without question Unbreakable, which may also be the darkest. My least favorite is Signs. And I do not share the adoration many have of The Sixth Sense. Actually, I prefer The Village, which is more allegorical and haunting, with its obvious and subtle references to fairy tales and how we've used them over time to protect our children, inadvertently harming them in the process. I state this, because Lady in the Water has more in common with The Village than it does with The Sixth Sense, and if you weren't a fan of The Village, I can't imagine you enjoying Lady, but I could be wrong.

Lady in the Water while flawed is not as flawed or as bad as the critics would like you to believe.
( My review of Lady in the Water, the trailer has more spoilers than this does, actually so does most critics reviews of it. But cut in case you have successfully avoided both and want to know nothing about it. )

My rating? Three stars or a B. Also not that scarey. I found certain tv shows such as Buffy, Angel, and Supernatural far more frightening.