Having missed the opportunity to write you last week because I was ill, I thought I could use the extra time to be more creative and some how make up for the lost correspondence.

However, as we all know, that time is gone and cannot be made up. Time that passes us is just gone.

I remember, however that I did not have a chance to talk to
you about all the reasons we have to be thankful during this holiday season . . . post
Sept. 11. Even though Thanksgiving has passed us
by for this year, there is still reason to reflect on the finer aspects of our lives, and also to think about how we can pass on good cheer to others.

At times, life cannot only be just tough it can seem outright adversarial. Problems can seem to jump up out of nowhere and put such incredible pressure on us that we feel like a soda bottle from which someone is trying to twist off the cap. But despite whatever is going on in our day to day life, we should never forget that as bad as it may seem, it can get worse if we allow it to.

I believe that your mind will take you where you want to go.

If you allow stress to make you think that all is lost, then all will be. But if you feel, think and know that things will work themselves out, they often do.

For many of us things are tough right now. Some have lost jobs and others have lost more than just a job because of what happened in lower Manhattan three months ago. Bills may be mounting and we may have to cut back on the gift list we make every year.

But if you are reading this, then you have one of the most important tools around . . . and that, of course, is your life itself.

As long as your have life, you are obligated to keep on living and keep on pushing.

I watched the adults in my life push through some pretty rough times when I was growing up, so I had examples of what it’s like to drag the wagon called "your life" behind you every day no matter what. Today it seems easy for some people to simply "un-hitch" their trailers and forget about responsibilities. There are many words for this — ranging from "laziness" to "depression" — but the one I find the most appropriate is "cowardice." To give up on yourself before the run has really begun is really just a fear of failing.

We have some unfinished business left to us by those who died while they were simply pressing on. I’m sure many of the folks in the World Trade Center that day didn’t want to be there. Some, I’m sure, hated their jobs or their bosses. They had bill collectors on their necks or domestic trouble of one kind or another. Many, probably had all of the above in their lives, but that day they got up and went to work one more time.

Let’s not let this be a holiday season during which we feel sorry for ourselves for this reason or that . . . no matter how tough it may be.

Let’s try to rejoice in the simple things that are right within our sphere of life. Rather than worry about what we don’t have, can’t do or can’t afford, let’s cherish what we do have, give what we can, buy what we can afford, and enjoy it.

A long time ago someone told me that when you get knocked down you don’t have to worry about getting up 10 times more, 100 times more or even a thousand. You only have to get up "one more time."

Let’s take up this new attitude and then pass it on to others.

Don’t give your friends or your family permission to even think about giving up on life. If someone asks you " how are you doing," instead of saying "the day stinks" or "I feel like crap," say something like "It’s getting better every day"