Clowning Around with Gratitude

To most five year olds in Brisbane they're known as Peebo and Dagwood - the 40 year old identical twins who surprise and delight their young audience with song, comedy and magic during their 30 minute clown show.  They do what they love and love what they do and the proof is always in the magic pudding - the kids love them in droves.  

But away from the colourful wigs, over-sized, turned-up shoes and painted-on smiles they are Peter and David, avid photographers, fitness freaks and......double lung recipients.  

Born eight weeks premature with life-threatening cystic fibrosis, David was first hospitalised at 15 and Peter at 19.  Two-hundred hospital admissions latter, they underwent lifesaving surgery in 2005 to replace their scarred and damaged lungs.  After his transplant Peter suffered major complications that put him in intensive care for four weeks.  He lost 24kgs and at one stage was given 48 hours to live.

Years of recuperation followed with physio treatment and the never ending pill-popping of anti-rejection drugs.  They began clowning as a way of giving back to the hospital which was by now a second home. 

Despite their momentous hardships Peter and David don't know the meaning of a life half-lived.  They don't proclaim gratitude - they live it - in every waking moment. 

During their clowning act you can feel the sparkle in their eyes, hear the wonder in their voice and see the tremble in their hands....every gig is as energetic as their last.  They joke that five years is all you get out of a lung transplant - that was five years ago.....but that's their shtick, seeing the humor in everything.

We have a lot to learn from Peter and David - a lesson in gratitude and appreciating the moment. Yes, life gets busy and crazy and complicated - but sometimes we need to pause and reboot our thinking.

Here's a simple routine I find works. The minute you open your eyes each morning, become aware of your surroundings and take a moment to reflect on:

1. What is good in your life

2. What isn't 

3. What do I have to do to change the 'isn't' to 'good' 

My simple gratitudes are: being without emotional or physical pain, the love of my wife and kids, the roof over my head, a hot shower, teaching my kids to be healthy through example, the ability to meet new people, freedom.....

What are you grateful for?

Try this little routine each day and I guarantee your outer world will match the fabric of your inner world and things will seem a little less rushed and a little less important.  If anything you will breathe easier... through a pair of lungs which are yours.

Peebo and Dagwood