'Change your mind, change your life'

“Change your mind, change your life” is something I have claimed to believe in for years. But there is quite a difference between believing in something and practicing it. The power of “changing my mind, changing my life’ was recently brought home to me with my brother.

A couple weeks ago, I was on the phone with my older brother, John, back on our Wisconsin dairy farm where we grew up together. We were having our usual very nice talk about events and family. We even talked about the possibility of me flying back for Christmas. Then our discussion got into politics. It got heated. He ended it saying, “Bob, you are way off on all this. I don’t want to talk with you anymore. Maybe we should rethink your trip back here.” And he hung up.

I was upset. I was angry. We have always been close. I felt terrible. It preyed on my mind for two or three days. Then I was reading headlines in a monthly magazine I get. One article in bold type leaped out at me: “Change your mind, change your life.”

Wow! There it was staring right back at me. I decided to “go to work” on changing my mind about me, my brother, and our talk. It took some honest work. But work it did! I called my brother’s number. He answered. I said, “John, this is Bob. Don’t hang up. I love you too much for that.” Our long conversation ended up just fine. And before hanging up, he said: “Bob, thank you for calling. I felt badly too. And I like that headline, “change your mind, change your life.”

We both changed our minds and changed our lives right there! Merry Christmas.

— Bob McClellan, Polson