for granted.

A cousin of mine was to have died over a year ago, but is still alive. Despite the bad news, people can still learn from her happy outlook on life. Imagine waking up tomorrow morning, and you’re not supposed to be awake. You step outside the door of your house and look around. It’s so much sweeter, so much cleaner and so much clearer. We don’t appreciate it because of our perspective. If I could ha

We tend to take our blessings for granted until we have to live without them. An experience that really brought this home came in 1993 when I took 51 black belts and traveled to Moscow, Russia for an international competition. We were the first US athletes to compete in the international stadium. It was during this time, Yeltsin went to war and they declared martial law in Moscow.

We won a number of gold medals because everyone truly focused on what he/she was doing. It was pretty distracting to hearing fully automatic weapon fire and tanks firing and rocking the side of the Russian capitol building. Those guys competed in such conditions and won. In fact, we ended the ceremonies early because the Russians used the stadium as holding tank (prison), for the huge street fights there in Moscow. We were shuffled out, and the armed military came in. So, we went back to our hotel, which was adjacent to Red Square. It was a lock down. The next morning, I crawled upon the roof of the hotel, looked over Red Square across to the Kremlin and saw smoke rising. It looked like a Newsweek cover. It told the whole story of what had taken place there. It was a scary situation because the people I brought into Moscow were my responsibility. We had cut our plans short because we were trying to get out of the country, which we did successfully. We were the first US citizens to fly from Moscow to New York. NBC was waiting for us at the airport, and they interviewed us as we got off of the plane. Which brings me to appreciation. When I said, “God Bless America,” I really meant it. These kinds of things bring me back and remind me that there is so much that we take for granted.

A cousin of mine was to have died over a year ago, but is still alive. Despite the bad news, people can still learn from her happy outlook on life. Imagine waking up tomorrow morning, and you’re not supposed to be awake. You step outside the door of your house and look around. It’s so much sweeter, so much cleaner and so much clearer. We don’t appreciate it because of our perspective. If I could hav

because everyone truly focused on what he/she was doing. It was pretty distracting to hearing fully automatic weapon fire and tanks firing and rocking the side of the Russian capitol building. Those guys competed in such conditions and won. In fact, we ended the ceremonies early because the Russians used the stadium as holding tank (prison), for the huge street fights there in Moscow. We were shuffled out, and the armed military came in. So, we went back to our hotel, which was adjacent to Red Square. It was a lock down. The next morning, I crawled upon the roof of the hotel, looked over Red Square across to the Kremlin and saw smoke rising. It looked like a Newsweek cover. It told the whole story of what had taken place there. It was a scary situation because the people I brought into Moscow were my responsibility. We had cut our plans short because we were trying to get out of the country, which we did successfully. We were the first US citizens to fly from Moscow to New York. NBC was waiting for us at the airport, and they interviewed us as we got off of the plane. Which brings me to appreciation. When I said, “God Bless America,” I really meant it. These kinds of things bring me back and remind me that there is so much that we take for granted.

A cousin of mine was to have died over a year ago, but is still alive. Despite the bad news, people can still learn from her happy outlook on life. Imagine waking up tomorrow morning, and you’re not supposed to be awake. You step outside the door of your house and look around. It’s so much sweeter, so much cleaner and so much clearer. We don’t appreciate it because of our perspective. If I could ha

armed military came in. So, we went back to our hotel, which was adjacent to Red Square. It was a lock down. The next morning, I crawled upon the roof of the hotel, looked over Red Square across to the Kremlin and saw smoke rising. It looked like a Newsweek cover. It told the whole story of what had taken place there. It was a scary situation because the people I brought into Moscow were my responsibility. We had cut our plans short because we were trying to get out of the country, which we did successfully. We were the first US citizens to fly from Moscow to New York. NBC was waiting for us at the airport, and they interviewed us as we got off of the plane. Which brings me to appreciation. When I said, “God Bless America,” I really meant it. These kinds of things bring me back and remind me that there is so much that we take for granted.

A cousin of mine was to have died over a year ago, but is still alive. Despite the bad news, people can still learn from her happy outlook on life. Imagine waking up tomorrow morning, and you’re not supposed to be awake. You step outside the door of your house and look around. It’s so much sweeter, so much cleaner and so much clearer. We don’t appreciate it because of our perspective. If I could ha

ut our plans short because we were trying to get out of the country, which we did successfully. We were the first US citizens to fly from Moscow to New York. NBC was waiting for us at the airport, and they interviewed us as we got off of the plane. Which brings me to appreciation. When I said, “God Bless America,” I really meant it. These kinds of things bring me back and remind me that there is so much that we take for granted.

A cousin of mine was to have died over a year ago, but is still alive. Despite the bad news, people can still learn from her happy outlook on life. Imagine waking up tomorrow morning, and you’re not supposed to be awake. You step outside the door of your house and look around. It’s so much sweeter, so much cleaner and so much clearer. We don’t appreciate it because of our perspective. If I could ha

for granted.

A cousin of mine was to have died over a year ago, but is still alive. Despite the bad news, people can still learn from her happy outlook on life. Imagine waking up tomorrow morning, and you’re not supposed to be awake. You step outside the door of your house and look around. It’s so much sweeter, so much cleaner and so much clearer. We don’t appreciate it because of our perspective. If I could have her perspective, imagine how good each day could be.