Face the sun, not the shadows

I was searching the web for Keller's famous quote:
"When you face the sun, the shadows always fall behind you."
and found this nice editorial which is worth reprinting in its entirety:

Helen Keller, the famed 19th century deaf-blind American writer, once wrote: “When you face the sun, the shadows always fall behind you.” The story of Helen Keller is the story of a normal child who, at the age of 18 months, was suddenly shut off from the world but, against overwhelming odds, waged a slow, hard but successful battle to re-enter that same world. The child grew into a highly intelligent and sensitive woman who wrote, spoke and labored relentlessly for the betterment of others.

In our day and age, we are quick to consider ourselves victims. We are all victims of some sort of emotional or social or gender or racial abuse. These problems often result from political and economic blunders we’re all subjected to, be it at the national or the global scale.

Obviously, Helen Keller had challenges most of us can’t even imagine. Instead of becoming pre-occupied by her physical disabilities, she faced the realities head on.

She turned her ‘perceived’ weakness into strength. That’s probably why we didn’t hear Helen Keller complain of being from a dysfunctional family, or of being a woman, or of not being given enough government aid to compensate her handicaps. She didn’t focus on the ‘shadows’ when there was another choice.

What you face grows in your life, what you ignore falls behind you. But if you turn and look only at the shadows, they become your life. Such was Helen Keller’s brand of optimistic thinking, which many of us could use. Indeed, the way we choose to see the world creates the world we see.

Best wishes [...]!
Siva Balasundram

Source:
http://www.igaupm.org.my/IGAUPM_Newsletter_Issue_6.pdf