Monday, November 16, 2009

My Big Toe


I'm not sure what the record is in the “Guinness Book of World Records” for stubbing your toe, but there was a time during a two-month period when I had to be close to that record. Every time I stubbed my toe, I uttered an expletive, or at least thought an expletive. I had been taught by watching others react this way. It was the "normal and acceptable" way to react to such an incident. It was the way I had been unconsciously trained to react. My friends reacted this way, so I felt that it was fine. Yet, little by little, I became uncomfortable with such a reaction. One day, I decided that there must be a better, more positive way to react to such an incident.
I needed to clarify my goal - I want a more peaceful and positive way of reacting to the act of stubbing my toe. So I'm walking my dog Texas, thinking about how I can react more peacefully in such an instance, and all of a sudden, within my head, I hear "Thank me!" It literally sounded like I had a small stereo installed in the middle of my brain. The echo of those words was so clear that I felt it touch every cell in my head. I turned to Texas, hoping he had heard it too. Just as I did, I tripped on a crack in the sidewalk, and to my amazement, the words that came out of me were not expletives, but "Thank you God!" "Wow," I thought to myself. "That's a real nice thing to say in response to such an event." I then decided that I would train myself to thank God every time I stubbed my toe, so little by little, I did just that. Before I knew it, I was thanking God for the times I tripped and almost fell. In every situation that I used to react with some kind of expletive or negative thought, I retrained myself to simply thank God for the situation. Immediately, without thinking, I said, "Thank you God" every time I tripped or stubbed my toe, and I felt really good about it. Wouldn't you know that soon after I learned this, I stopped stubbing my toe and tripping. Now, whenever I trip or stub my toe (I'm glad to report that the incidents are now under the national average), I simply thank God, and this reaction feels natural, positive and peaceful.


Reference: Inspiring short stories from the book You Have Chosen to Remember: A Journey from Perception to Knowledge, Peace of Mind and Joy by James Blanchard Cisneros.

15 comments:

  1. Very Nice Story!
    (kahit na d ko binasa)
    Ang galing mo maam!.......

    just Droppin' by!
    Hiiiiii Maammmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

    from the most HANDSOME in the whole Philippines,
    Jerson!

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  2. We think that the story tells something about a person who was uncomfortable after realizing that every time he stubs his toe, he says something bad. But at first, he thought that it was alright because that was the way that the people around him reacted. So he did what the others did thinking that it was the right thing to do. But as time passes by, he became uncomfortable and decided to change his abominable way of reacting. He was successful in his plan.
    We think that the story's message means that we,people, should believe that everything happens for a reason. We also think that people should think positive about life. People these days commonly misunderstand the things that happen to them. They usually forget about the existence of the real God. To conclude our thoughts, we can only say that making little changes in life can make our lifestyle change.

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  3. My Big Toe's a very nice story. It inspires us to be humble and thankful for the incidents that happen to us whether good or bad. The story depicts a man who's lucky when it comes to tripping his toe, in which spurious words cannot be heard by other people from his mouth, rather words of wisdom and thanks are spoken. There may be unexpected events that happen to us that are unfortunate, though it may hurt a lot, we should still react positively and should utter words that acts as our new perspectives in our lives. Words that are so bitter are not really needed and should be forbidden in terms of being an optimistic person. And also we should still be thankful because after all we are still alive (encountered incidents are not so deadly) and if we suddenly DIE, the people that we love should also be thankful instead of weeping and shedding a bucket of tears because the people we love and care for are given an another challenge and chapter of their lives that may help them as days pass by, which God is giving them.

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  4. "MY BIG TOE" is a kind of story that tickles your soul and mind. It is about a man that learned to say , "thank you God" whenever he trips or stubs his toe. He says that instead of saying bad and expletive words.

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  5. For our group, the story, My Big Toe,is inspirational and interesting. It reflects how people should be determined and focused on a goal, especially when it comes to a changes within themselves. Also, we find the story as a means of learning morals. Through the story, we have learned that we should be thankful of everything even though some of these are not what we ask for. Making mistakes should not lead to having negative reactions or thoughts, either, but instead, we should at least be grateful. Nobody is perfect, afterall. We also learned about having a positive outlook in life and making goals for us to lead a better lifetime.

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  7. This story(My big toe) is a very nice story. It tells about a man who stubs his toe that made it bigger. He was so close in making it to the "Guinness book of World records". that is why it also funny. A negative thought does not make things better, so put a smile though your heart is aching, smile! what's the use of crying. bye ma'am

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  8. This story was inspirational(like what the others say) for he changed his reactions to thanking the accidents and accepting it rather than saying an expletive. He was able to change himself cause of his determination to do so.Our GROUP said that the story was funny while also expressing one change for the better.It shows how ANYONE can ALWAYS CHANGE if he/she puts his/her mind and effort to it.It shows how we should react normally to these accidents for these accidents are uncontrollable.That's all.

    Man, I commented long
    Sorry Ma'am if the group name now is different -_-
    -Andromeda-

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  9. This story (My Big Toe) is a nice story. It's a good way to make everyone confident whenever they have something different from others.This story is so inspiring. Having a big toe is not a reason that you will be ashamed about yourself. Think positive and be an optimist. Everyone has different characteristics. So don't be shy if ever you have a big toe. Otherwise you could have a record in Guinness book of world records.


    Ma'am we are the group 8 of I-Antlia.
    ^^

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  10. this story is funny.But we can learn to take things the way they are.

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  11. For us, the gue-rin lovers of I-Antlia, it is really a wonderful and inspiring story because it is about a man who encountered a mountain of sacrifice, but however, in the end, encountered a fountain of paradise!!!

    We really hope that this will continue to inspire people....

    we are the group 2 of I-Antlia

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  13. the story was like a persuading type of story (but not really) because of the part where he feels uncomfortable with his big toe, but he just tries to convince himself to think positive and just thank god so that he would feel better. it shows that every time we think of something so negative, we don't really have to be bothered and we have to look at the bright side so that we would feel enhanced with the situation.
    even though we are not 'positive-thinkers',
    this story made us understand that we don't have to blame every problem we encounter.

    ∟gRoup 4 of I-Antlia..
    sori ma'am if we posted this lately..
    coz we almost 4got ..plz accept our preparation..

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  14. For our Group the story of "My Big Toe" is a very interesting and nice story. The story encourages us that we need to have a positive outlook in our life.The man in the story always think that incidents are bad, so he says bad words.One day,the man realize that incidents are not bad so, he change his outlook in life.Whenever the man meets an incident he says "Thank You God".This story will be an inspiration for some people who have negative outlook in life.When you have positive outlook you always feel comfortable.

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  15. This story tells us to be comfortable and have a positive outlook. We should not say bad things if we are mad. People that had read this should change their negative outlook to positive by being comfortable. If your mad or angry you can shout loud or just do nothing if you do this, its like your a good and well disciplined person.

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