David Ponder receives Decision 5: The Joyful Decision from an odd choice; Anne Frank
“Today, I will choose to be happy. I will greet each day with laughter.”
Anne Frank was born the same year as MLK Jr, Barbara Walters, and my grandmother (Matilda “Tilly” Shea).
I know my grandmother, who I called Greer, had 15 difficult years at the end of her life due to her battle with Cancer.
Yet she, like the story Andy Andrews tells about Anne Frank, chooses to be happy each day of her life.
Greer battled various types of cancer from 1973 until her death in January 1989. While there were days she could hardly move out of her LazyBoy chair, she was joyful for each day she had in life.
During the times when her cancer was in remission, she traveled. And travel she did.
The running joke during those times was that we needed to schedule a month or two out to make sure she was home before we drove the 20 minutes to her house.
Anne Frank lived through her own terrible times. Anne and her family spent 761 days in the secret annex before the Gestapo found them and sent the seven of them to extermination and concentration camps.
You can read more about what happened in Anne’s diary published as “The Diary of a Young Girl*”.
In The Traveler’s Gift, David Ponder meets the teenager and experiences the fear and relief of a Gestapo visit to the building the annex was connected to. David marveled at Anne and her ability to be positive given the dire straits she and her family were in.
She excitedly shows David her pictures and tells of her life in the Annex. The ability to choose to be happy is a decision we can all make. We can make it at any time and during any situation.
People are attracted to those that are joyful and happy. No one wants to be around or work with a “Debbie Downer.”
As the old saying goes, “you catch more flies with honey that vinegar.”
The decision given to us needs to be made daily, and more likely at every moment of the day.
“My smile has become my calling card. It is, after all, the most potent weapon I possess. My smile has the strength to forge bonds, break ice, and calm storms.”
