Sometimes we think we are having a hard day, or going through a tough time until we hear someone else sharing their story,: Remember that saying ‘I cried because I had no shoes until I met a man who had no feet!’ While cleaning up some paperwork in my office, I came across some notes, I just had to keep, share, enjoy the read.
Fire authorities in California found a corpse in a burned-out section of the forest while assessing the damage done by a forest fire. The deceased male was dressed in a full wet suit, complete with scuba tanks on his back, flippers, and a face mask.
A post-mortem test revealed that the man died not from burns, but from massive internal injuries. Dental records provided a positive identification. Investigators then set about to determine how a fully clothed diver ended up in the middle of a forest fire.
It was revealed that on the day of the fire, the man went diving off the coast, some 20 miles from the forest. The firefighters, seeking to control the fire as quickly as possible, had called in a fleet of helicopters with very large dip buckets. Water was dipped from the ocean and emptied at the site of the forest fire.
You guessed it. One minute our diver was making like Flipper in the Pacific, the next, he was doing the breaststroke in a fire dip bucket 300 feet in the air.
Now that is pretty bad, but this next story is just too much to believe, or accept, but it’s a true story!
A man was working on his motorcycle on the patio, his wife nearby in the kitchen. While racing the engine, the motorcycle accidentally slipped into gear. The man, still holding onto the handlebars, was dragged along as it burst through the glass patio doors.
His wife, hearing the crash, ran into the room to find her husband cut and bleeding, the motorcycle, and the shattered patio door. She called for an ambulance and, because the house sat on a fairly large hill, went down the several flights of stairs to meet the paramedics and escort them to her husband.
While the attendants were loading her husband, the wife managed to right the motorcycle and push it outside. She also quickly blotted up the spilled gasoline with some paper towels and tossed them into the toilet.
After being treated and released, the man returned home, looked at the shattered patio door and the damage done to his motorcycle. He went into the bathroom and consoled himself with a cigarette while attending to his business. About to stand, he flipped the butt between his legs.
The wife, who was in the kitchen, heard a loud explosion and her husband screaming. Finding him lying on the bathroom floor with his trousers blown away and burns on his buttocks, legs, and groin, she once again phoned for an ambulance. The same paramedic crew was dispatched.
As the paramedics carried the man down the stairs to the ambulance they asked the wife how he had come to burn himself… She told them. They started laughing so hard, one slipped, the stretcher dumping the husband out. He fell down the remaining stairs, breaking his arm. True story!
Here’s another one:
The average cost of rehabilitating a seal after the Exxon Valdes oil spill in Alaska was $80,000. At a special ceremony, two of the most expensively saved animals were being released back into the wild amid cheers and applause from onlookers. A minute later, in full view, a killer whale ate them both. Now that’s one expensive meal for the Whale!
I’m not sure about this next one, but I could see how it would happen.
A woman came home to find her husband in the kitchen shaking frantically, almost in a dancing frenzy, with some kind of wire running from his waist towards the electric kettle. Intending to jolt him away from the deadly current, she whacked him with a handy plank of wood, breaking his arm in two places. Up to that moment, he had been happily listening to his walkman.
So whatever you think you are dealing with, spare a thought for the people mentioned in these stories. Oh, and if you are having a laugh, shame on you! Actually if this has helped you feel a little more cheerful about your own situation, that’s good.
x Annie
Yes as Australians we have had it too good for too long and take for granted how lucky we have been.
Hey Rose, thanks for your comment xoxox you go in the prize draw too. and We are lucky, always lucky xxx
Oh my goodness. Those stories are utterly incredible. I love the last story about the poor guy innocently listening to his Walkman and then… BAM… a broken arm in not one but TWO PLACES!!
OUCH.
Yes it did bring a smile to my face Annie Clarke.
Gratitude is something I’ll always be ‘grateful’ for. 😂😊
Thank you. ❤️❤️❤️
Yes Terri,
Makes me think, I nearly knocked Darryl out once in a similar sort of situation. xx ha ha.
When my son was 8 years old, he broke his femur while playing football at school. My husband was on crutches with a broken heel, and I was 8 months pregnant! We looked a site! My son had to be in traction in hospital for 6 weeks, and we all felt very sorry for ourselves. One day, while getting myself a cup of tea in the parent’s room, I met a lovely lady who was visiting her baby granddaughter in the oncology ward – cancer! She asked me through her tears to pray for their precious baby. I went back and hugged my son – things are never as bad as they seem.
Leanne, I completely agree with you, things are never as bad as they seem. xx thank you for your comment, you have gone into my competition for drawing a prize, winner announced on the 29th September. x Annie
oh Leanne, I meant to ask, how is your 8 year old son now, and your husband? x Annie
hello dear Leanne great comment, you are my prize winner!!! contact me x
I find myself often feeling guilty for “having a bad day” etc with the whole culture of “there’s always someone worse off and thus we should be grateful!” I have been raised this way… but! I need to remind myself that it is also valid and entirely OK for me to have a bad day. I am going through a nasty separation from my partner of 15 years. It’s ok for this time in my life to be hard… and to have many bad days, or bad moments in those days. I appreciate the humor, and I can laugh about the madness that’s going on in my life too… thankfully! And thanks to my future focussed hopeful outlook on life ♡ It is so important to practise gratitude and awe in daily life. Have you read “Phosphorescence” by Julia Baird? I imagine it could be down your alley!
Oh thank you Anita, and no I haven’t read Phosphorescence, I must seek this one out. xoxox
Libby has it Anne… I can drop it off to you one day!
Jim E.
Oh wow I really needed this today, shame on me as I did get a good laugh at a couple of them 😂 I guess it’s all about perspective isn’t it.
Holly, don’t feel guilty about the laugh, we can look at everything in another way. So thank you for the comment xoxo
Totally worth reading! Was expecting some deep psychological / positivity jolt, instead got a belly laugh!! Exactly what I needed, thank you for brightening my day.
Good on you Bron, you will get more humour from me Bron, I seek it out like some people seek out bad news. Not for me.
Much love to you and thank you for the comment .
Thanks Anne, yes there is always someone worse off than you, good reminder to be grateful even when things seem hard xxx needed to hear this x
oh Liesl,
dont you know it, x hope to be in to your lovely little cafe soon. xxx
Fantastic read … lifted me up after a week of deaths and heartache! Sometimes a good old laugh is the best medicine of all. We really do have a lot to be thankful for, despite all of the challenges ahead of us. X
good on you Hannah,
we all need a laugh, I will keep them coming. x
In old age a man should continue to do the things he has always done…. Proof positive at age 67 I took up tap dancing only to end up on crutches after class number 2…
well there are others ways of getting attention dear Jim, xxx ha ha… good on you though, so fancy a tap with me some time, I can tap dance. Love it.
Great read! I was due for a reality check today. Thanks for sharing Annie, tomorrows procedures won’t seem half as bad now that I’ve read what others have had to endure. Cheers Sue
Good on you Sue, you always make the effort, we could all learn from you Sue, xx bless you.
Oh Ok ! Thanks Annie for reminding me that as many people as there are, better off…. there are as many, not !
I went to a skin specialist appointment yesterday having booked it weeks ago after a very nasty spot appeared, and was getting worse, on my neck. In the meantime, I put tea tree oil and frankincense on the spot and it had nearly disappeared by yesterday.
I decided to keep my appointment for a total skin check. The once nasty spot on my neck was given the all clear and we spent the time exchanging a covid joke each !
I really do think, without the oils intervention, that appointment yesterday would have been a very different one.
I thought this a great opportunity to pay gratitude to your well-being expertise and to our beautiful oils ! : )
oh for sure Rosalie, I love that you included this story, and I feel the same way. I just applied some Budhawood essential oil on my arms today and noticed instant calm, which was what I needed. Good on you, in kindness Annie
Gratitude is so underestimated! Thanks for the reminder to be grateful for the smallest things…. Life is so precious and we are all just riding the edge! ( my new motto) x miss you annie and family
We miss you more Naomi, and we need an updated pic of your beautiful son. xxx thank you for your comment xx Annie
Thanks Annie I loved those stories. With all of the bad news around at the moment its wonderful to see something that makes us smile.
Good on you Faye, good news is the tonic!
Thanks for the giggle 🤭
Its a good reminder to be grateful you got out of bed this morning 🧘♀️
you are so right about that Petra, I’m finding myself looking for laughs more, it keeps you grounded and happier.x
I travelled around India when I was younger, and one of the greatest take aways from that trip is that if ever I feel a bit hard done by (and we are in the 6th Melbourne lock down) I immediately think how blessed I am to have the opportunities afforded to me in Australia. The saying you started your article with is something I live by.
A little while ago I met a friend of a friend, and low and behold, this remarkable woman, was the first child to divorce her parents. To understand her terrible story, it is amazing that she had the strength as a young, very abused girl, to actually make history. It highlighted how disempowered kids can be cut adrift.. Today she runs her own foundation. Talk about rising above and not letting things get the better of her… I’m sure her early strength has helped so many other youngsters save themselves.
Ps. Hope your dad is surviving Melbourne lockdown well too!
Ah Rose, you know it! My dad is surviving, I call him every day, sometimes twice, just to remind him, he is loved. Thank you for your beautiful comment. India is a great leveller, a great representation of a nation that continues to overcome adversity.
Currently working on the images for Lifestyle Reset, The Essential Guide To Healing You and the Planet. This will be my 19th book, and I believe the single most profound bit of work I could ever create, given today’s challenges. x 14 days quarantine x 2 has certainly given me many gifts! There are always 2 ways to look at everything!