Everything Is Attitude — Recipes for Life — Faith, Trust, and an Attitude of Gratitude
Hosts: Rosemary Altea and Al Pisano
Rosemary Altea is a Spiritual Medium and Healer, and Al is an Educator and student of Rosemary’s.
Rosemary and Al talk about Rosemary’s cut at the base of her middle finger, slicing through the nerve to the bone and requiring five stitches. Even now, the pain is in the front and side of the knuckle. She has no strength in that hand.
Normally someone who is very independent she found she needed help at the grocery store with the cart and bags.
It’s only a finger. It's not like it’s a lung or kidney. ~Rosemary Altea
This all began when her grandson was visiting. She promised to take him out for ice cream while his mother worked, and maybe go to the beach. She decided to prepare lunch first. She went into the fridge looking for something they would both like and she decided to get the fresh avocado rather than the already opened one. She got a small sharp knife and jabbed it into the stone per her normal process, except that this time the knife slipped and jabbed into her finger, bounced off the bone and sliced around the base of the middle finger. There was quite a bit of blood, some screaming and her daughter thought Rosemary had sliced the finger off.
Rosemary tried to get ahold of herself after the initial shock wore off. Removing the soaked paper towels she looked at her hand and thought she could put honey on it and tape it up. Her daughter insisted that she needed to go to the hospital. Still believing she could manage the situation, she resisted.
They called Rosemary’s friend, MaryLou and she came to look. She agreed, a trip to the nearest medical facility was needed.
At the clinic, they numbed the finger, cleaned it and stitched it, and she went home. Doing what, she normally did, while Samantha worked, she kept an eye on Rhys and decided to clean up the dishes and put them in the dishwasher.
The pain was too much, and Samantha noticed what was happening and said she would do it. So Samantha came over and while dealing with it, threw her back out.
Instead of counting how many things had gone wrong that afternoon, they used their British humor and began laughing about it.
Rosemary knew she had promised Rhys that she was going to take him for ice cream and you never, make a promise you don’t keep. She wasn’t going to let her situation cloud their time together.
Rosemary couldn’t drive, Samantha’s back was out, and the promise was still hanging in the air.
Rosemary said we all have choices. MaryLou called to check on her, and at that point, Rosemary asked if MaryLou wouldn’t mind taking them all into town for that ice cream, so that is what happened.
Rosemary: “I felt a bit of a fraud because there are so many people at the clinic who were far worse off. I had been to this clinic weeks earlier with my bronchial infection. This was only a finger. I would have slapped honey on it had I been home alone, and that would have been that.”
If I had lost it, it wouldn’t have been the end of the world. I wouldn’t have liked it, but I put myself in a place mentally, spiritually, emotionally where I could raise myself where the physical could be transcended.
I centered myself. I don’t become hysterical. You have to look and see the best of the thing rather than the worst of the thing.
There are certain circumstances where reactions are warranted — the loss of a child; if your child is in an accident. If you train yourself to be centered those major events will be easier for you.
Al: When my Father passed away. I remember being centered and almost numb to the process. Make no mistake, I loved my father dearly, and I missed him. I knew my Mother, and my sisters and my children needed me. I got to the place where I could stay centered and was able to be there for others when they needed me.
Over many years I have been able to recognize that the lesser things are lesser. I have been able to be centered when the big things come up. We have control over how we handle ourselves. Being hysterical makes the pain worse for you and those around you.
Faith
If we were to ask our viewers, do you believe in God or a God Force or a Force for good? Do you believe in the light? 99% of our viewers would say they believe. It’s easy to believe when everything is okay. It's not so easy to believe when things have gone wrong. Our faith is tested again and again.
It is one thing to say, “Yes I believe,” when everything is going well. It’s not so easy to believe when it isn’t. When the critical moments come, it's not so easy to live your faith.
A few years ago, Samantha had surgery, and she bled out. Rosemary rushed to the hospital and just missed Samantha being sent in for a second surgery. Hours later when Rosemary was finally able to see Samantha she was hooked up to all kinds of machinery, her head was bandaged, she had a ventilator to breathe. She looked small and frail, and what could be seen of her face Rosemary saw paleness.
“For one second I felt my knees buckling because when you see your child in this condition, you have a choice. Do I accept whatever God decides and live my faith trusting that it is the right thing for my child or am I going to sit there and pray and plead and beg?”
“Living my faith means believing, whatever happens, is the right thing for my child. I sat with her for days. Not one time did I say to Grey Eagle, God or the Universe, please let her be okay.”
“I thought I needed to live my faith and hand over her situation knowing whatever was decided was going to be the right thing for my child.”
“I have had all of this evidence and experience that have enabled me to be able to do this. Many people are not as fortunate.”
“I was willing. I was able to put myself and my daughter into God’s hands, but I certainly wasn’t going to put my daughter’s life completely into the Doctor’s hands or the Nurse’s hands. I made sure in my controlling way that they were doing everything they were supposed to be doing. I ran that ward. I had to come down on one nurse who wasn’t moving fast enough to get the Doctor when Samantha began to relapse.”
Al: You often hear people say why did this happen to me, I was having a bad day already; why did this have to happen? Then you hear others say; I can’t really do much about it, so let’s move on. What recipe could others who aren’t as in tune as you are, use?
Those that stub their toe have a choice to swear and make a big deal of it or accept and move on.
Recipe
Why Me? I have been tempted to ask. Then I think, Why Not me? What makes me so special that these things shouldn’t happen?
- Take a Look at yourself and ask Why Not Me? (Even if you are psychic.)
A few years ago I had a lot of money stolen from me. It made the newspapers, and people asked that question. They had a field day with it and asked, if she is psychic, why didn’t she know?
Well, I am not immune to the human experience. I need these experiences for my growth. There are certain things that you are meant to experience and some things you have to deal with it. It’s your attitude when these things happen that matter. It is how you deal with it that matters.
That is spiritual growth. We are here to learn. When we strive for that bright attitude, in the striving we are growing.
If I were to smooth your path and leave no wrinkles, no boulders, no stones that you would have to climb over, where would your learning be? Where would your growth be? ~Grey Eagle
Grey Eagle is going to warn me of some things, but he certainly isn’t going to tell me everything. Sometimes I have to stub my toe. I have to climb over that boulder; I have to deal with my finger. Where would our learning process be?
Years ago in Hong Kong, I met a couple. The husband was a Police Officer when Hong Kong was still ruled by Great Britain. He came with his wife.
She came for the consultation, and she taped the session. Her grandmother came through and made herself known. So many others came through. There was a point when the Grandmother asked Rosemary to give a message but not to get it wrong.
The message was, “In a little while God will ask of you a great sacrifice. When that time comes, and you know what we are talking about, please understand that this was something meant to be.”
She went on to say that “There will be a great deal of pain and heartache, but there would also be an opportunity for learning and growth.” Afterward, the woman asked what the Grandmother meant. Rosemary didn’t know.
“None of us were to know what the sacrifice would be.” Only that it would be inevitable.
A year later the phone rang, and Rosemary picked up the phone and said, hello. The woman was only able to say her name before she burst into tears. I remembered her. How often do you hear a message that God is going to ask a great sacrifice and that it is God’s will?
I gave her a few minutes to get herself together. While that was happening Grey Eagle drew close to me and reminded me that she was told that a great sacrifice was going to be asked of her.
She said, “It’s my son.” As she said it, I could see him, the boy. He was running down an embankment, a small stream. It was the rainy season. The small stream had become larger, which made the bank collapse, and the boy slipped into the river and had become lost. The Mother asked Rosemary to find the son. She and I both knew this was the sacrifice she had been asked to give.
I watched the boy being taken downstream, then into a river, then to a huge waterfall. As I watched this scene, and I was describing this to the woman — I saw as the boy’s body went over the waterfall, I saw him going up, up, up and saw his angels reaching out to him to lift him, and to take him home.
She confirmed where they lived did indeed have a small stream that flowed into a larger river which flowed over a waterfall. She sobbed and sobbed knowing this was the sacrifice that her grandmother had told her.
We talked a lot, and over the next few days, she called me every day. She told me at one point the only comfort she could get was to lay in her son’s bed and hold his Teddy Bear and play the tape of her Grandmother saying through Rosemary that God will ask of you a great sacrifice.
Now how hard is it to have a good attitude in those moments? Because she had the tape and was told about it, she was able to have faith. This was an inevitability. She knew there was nothing she could have done. Having that tape helped her with that pain and grief. She was able to live her faith through that message. Of course, she felt grief. She had a wonderful attitude and eventually got involved with other parents that lost their children.
It was very profound for me because when she said, “Can you find my son?” She wasn’t looking for him on this earth. She was looking to see if I could see that he made it over okay.
When I said to her, I see his angels, and they’re all around him, and they are lifting him, she broke down and sobbed but with relief. Even though she was crying, and sobbing; even though he hadn’t been found and officially been declared dead, she knew she could trust her Grandmother and me and it was such a relief.
The why did God do that? and Why me? didn’t happen. I can understand why people ask those things. God’s way is not necessarily anything we might understand.
Faith believes anyway even when we are confused. Even when we hurt, even when we stub our toe, and are running about crazy even when I sliced my finger, faith believes no matter what is going on.
The big Ingredient is when people are asking why me? Or when people are striving so hard to have the right attitude:
2. Faith and Trust
I couldn’t waste my week with my daughter and grandson, by letting a sliced finger affect it. I couldn’t stop the ice cream that was promised.
Al: If you are huffing and puffing and are miserable about what happened, you affect others. You had every right to be miserable because you were in pain but what would that have done for you if you had taken that path?
Rosemary: My Father was a professional soldier all his life. If you couldn’t be tough around him, you couldn’t be tough around anybody. I remember one day my Father came to me and I must have been 16, and my boyfriend had gone away for the week and I had been pining and playing the piano and feeling sorry for myself. My Father came to the door. He was not an emotional man by any means. He was not affectionate. He was a tough, tough, guy.
He said, “Come here.” I felt my stomach drop because you never knew if you were going to get a slap across the head or what was going on. He held out his hand and in it was a plain old brown flat stone from the garden. He said, “I want you to make your heart like this stone.” He was serious. I know he was trying to protect me. He was trying to say, you’ve got to toughen up, or you are going to get hurt. He was in his way probably the most affectionate thing he ever did for me. I also know I have to say it was the worst piece of advice he ever gave to me and I didn't take it.
My heart is mush. Soft, as soft can be. I can be tough. I can harden my heart when I need to when situations call for it but don't ever make your heart like a stone because you pen yourself in and keep everyone else out.
With a positive attitude, you have to let people in. You know, Hey, look at this (her finger) and then smile and say, its only a finger.
I certainly couldn’t do the job I do, or couldn’t have talked to that woman in Hong Kong and helped her if my heart were like a stone.
People deal with things in different ways, so the way I change my attitude is different than the way you do. Try to find a way to have an attitude that is right for you and the people around you. That is what you were saying, isn’t it Al?
Al: If you have kids or grandkids they will learn from your response, won’t they Rosemary?
Rosemary: Kids don’t do what you say; they do what you do.
Rhys was asking about a person in his life who doesn’t laugh and seems to have no joy. I said whatever they do is not important, its what we do that’s important. We have joy, and we have fun, and we like to giggle and so on.
Al: I find you can’t take things back. If you react poorly to a situation with a non-positive attitude, the children remember. It becomes part of their fiber. If you don’t react well, they don’t react well.
3. Attitude of Gratitude
After comments were read Rosemary responded. When a stone is cast into the water, we see the ripples fan out on the surface of the water. What we don’t see is as the stone drops, is underneath the water there are ripples too. There are effects that come from that one small stone, that one small thought, that one small thing that was said.
It goes deep. It affects you and it affects others. Be the person who inspires through your attitude.
If you want to be on a future Everything is Attitude show with Rosemary and Al or you want to sign up for classes that start on March 11:
email:
Info@everythingisattitude.com
Rosemary@rosemaryaltea.com
Al@alpisano.com
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