Stress is a Choice

I was in Northwest Airline Hell again this week -- second month in a row. My 6:10 am flight was supposed to be a one stop in DTW to home by noon. Instead they canceled it and rescheduled me from DLH to MSP to ORD to DTW to SYR, all beginning at 4 pm and home by midnight. My saintly wife, thanks be to God, called Northwest and gave them some Frustrated Wife & Mother Hell of her own and she got me rescheduled without a stop in Chicago and home by 8 pm. Still each of those flights were late and it was 9 pm when I stepped out of the terminal in SYR. Northwest Airlines brings out the absolute worst attitude in me. First flight was seated with an old man who talked incessantly. Second flight was next to a guy who wreaked of booze when he sat down and then had 2 Jack-n-Cokes, to which he had to slur his way through the rest of the flight. Third flight was next to a friendly older women who lived in Haiti for nearly 40 years and now runs an interfaith philosophy retreat center near Seneca Lake. She said something that has been haunting me all week: "Stress is a choice." It's been haunting me because my life is so stressed at the moment with packing and moving this weekend, major events at work, a new baby coming, etc. etc. etc. Stress is a Choice. Think about it.