No one can tell me at a glance that I have an ostomy. Only those close to me know it for sure. Perhaps that is why it is difficult for me to recognize a curious fact; some people do not realize it’s a BLESSING, not a DOOM!

One wonders whether this knowledge might have some value to the human race—at least that part of the human race that tends to look upon an ostomy as a disaster.

Acceptance is part of being happy. People need happiness as much as they need food; without it they’re devoured by restlessness and discontent.

How many people who think they resent an ostomy would, if they were truthful, recognize it as the thing they most needed to enjoy life again? How many could, with a simple change in mental outlook, admit it’s a BLESSING?

Many people never learn; they never achieve the peace of mind and contentment this knowledge brings. They spend their lives in a prison where an ostomy is the eternal punishment. An ostomy is not DOOM—that’s a mental attitude.

Nothing is a joy or a burden; only thinking makes it so. How can we avoid that feeling of compulsion that makes an ostomy a burden? We don’t disclaim it. There’s no use kidding ourselves about that.

Nevertheless, there are things we can do to take the edge off the feeling of compulsion and make things more pleasant. We need to expend our mental and physical energies.

If these energies are not expended in a constructive fashion, they turn inward and poison our minds and bodies with resentment and dissatisfaction. We need that warm sense of accomplishment, to be needed, wanted and useful. We need it to give balance to our lives.

Contentment depends not so much on the BLESSING as on the attitude of the person who has it.