Efryim Barry Shore
Efryim attributes his positive attitude to a conversation he had with his aunt at the age of seven. Efryim, originally from Boston, was looking out the window on a stormy New England day. It was cold and rainy and Efryim could think of many reasons to be upset. “What a horrible day,” he exclaimed. Just then his aunt came up behind him and chided him for seeing the negative. “What are you talking about?” she asked. “The rain and snow are so good for the world. It helps the plants to grow, it fills the river basins, and gives us water to drink. We can’t survive without rain!”
“That was a seminal moment in my life,” he recalls. “My eyes were different from then on. I realized that I had a choice whether to see the good in a situation, or to focus on the opposite. Sometimes in the midst of a very hot or rainy day you can find yourself beginning to grumble and complain. Stop yourself right before the negative words leave your mouth and say, ‘Thank God I’m alive; I’m walking; I can smile!’
