It has been said that the subtle difference between an optimist and a pessimist is just three letters. In truth, the difference is perception. Driving down the street one day, I saw a bumper sticker that read: One’s attitude is the real disability. It turned out that the driver was physically impaired; Multiple Sclerosis (but not disabled)! At the grocery store, she parked her car and limped, ever so gracefully, toward the entrance.

When I first ran the Boston Marathon in 1978 on a cold wet day, like so many others around me, I began to moan at the anticipation of Heartbreak Hill, a seven-mile incline toward the end of the race. Just as I was about to turn to my college roommate and complain about a cramp in my left leg, I was passed by an athlete in a wheelchair who had no legs. Four more wheelchair athletes followed him in pursuit. At the same moment, the sun broke through the clouds. The symbology was powerful. Attitude is everything”! It turns lemons into lemonade, and at the end of any race, this is truly the thirst quencher.

-By Brian Luke Seaward, PhD, from Stressed is Desserts Spelled Backward