I woke up early today, excited over all I get to do before the clock strikes
midnight. I have responsibilities to fulfill today. I am important. My job is
to choose what kind of day I am going to have.

Today I can complain because the weather is rainy or I can be thankful that
the grass is getting watered for free.

Today I can feel sad that I don’t have more money or I can be glad that my
finances encourage me to plan my purchases wisely and guide me
away from waste.

Today I can grumble about my health or I can rejoice that I am alive.

Today I can lament over all that my parents didn’t give me when I was growing
up or …I can feel grateful that they allowed me to be born.

Today I can cry because roses have thorns or I can celebrate that thorns have
roses.

Today I can mourn my lack of friends or I can excitedly embark upon a quest
to discover new relationships.

Today I can whine because I have to go to work or I can shout for joy because
I have a job to do.

Today I can complain because I have to go to school or eagerly open my mind
and fill it with rich new tidbits of knowledge.

Today I can murmur dejectedly because I have to do housework or I can feel
honored because I’ve been provided shelter for my mind, body and
soul.

Today stretches ahead of me, waiting to be shaped.

And here I am, the sculptor who gets to do the shaping.

What today will be like is up to me. I get to choose what kind of day I will
have!

LaLanne died of respiratory failure due to pneumonia Sunday afternoon at
his home in Morro Bay on California’s central coast, his longtime agent
Rick Hersh said.

Just before he had heart valve surgery in 2009 at age 95, Jack Lalanne told
his family that dying would wreck his image, his publicist Ariel Hankin
said at the time.

LaLanne (pronounced lah-LAYN’) credited a sudden interest in fitness with
transforming his life as a teen, and he worked tirelessly over the next
eight decades to transform others’ lives, too.

"The only way you can hurt the body is not use it," LaLanne said.
"Inactivity is the killer and, remember, it’s never too late."

His workout show was a television staple from the 1950s to the ’70s.
LaLanne and his dog Happy encouraged kids to wake their mothers and drag
them in front of the television set. He developed exercises that used no
special equipment, just a chair and a towel.

He also founded a chain of fitness studios that bore his name and in recent
years touted the value of raw fruit and vegetables as he helped market a
machine called Jack LaLanne’s Power Juicer.

When he turned 43 in 1957, he performed more than 1,000 push-ups in 23
minutes on the "You Asked For It" television show. At 60, he swam from
Alcatraz Island to Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco – handcuffed,
shackled and towing a boat. Ten years later, he performed a similar feat in
Long Beach harbor.

He maintained a youthful physique and joked in 2006 that "I can’t afford to
die. It would wreck my image."

"I never think of my age, never," LaLanne said in 1990. "I could be 20 or
100. I never think about it, I’m just me. Look at Bob Hope, George Burns.
They’re more productive than they’ve ever been in their whole lives right
now."

Fellow bodybuilder and former California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger
credited LaLanne with taking exercise out of the gymnasium and into living
rooms.

"He laid the groundwork for others to have exercise programs, and now it
has bloomed from that black and white program into a very colorful
enterprise," Schwarzenegger said in 1990.

In 1936 in his native Oakland, LaLanne opened a health studio that included
weight-training for women and athletes. Those were revolutionary notions at
the time, because of the theory that weight training made an athlete slow
and "muscle bound" and made a woman look masculine.

"You have to understand that it was absolutely forbidden in those days for
athletes to use weights," he once said. "It just wasn’t done. We had
athletes who used to sneak into the studio to work out.

"It was the same with women. Back then, women weren’t supposed to use
weights. I guess I was a pioneer," LaLanne said.

The son of poor French immigrants, he was born in 1914 and grew up to
become a sugar addict, he said.

The turning point occurred one night when he heard a lecture by pioneering
nutritionist Paul Bragg, who advocated the benefits of brown rice, whole
wheat and a vegetarian diet.

"He got me so enthused," LaLanne said. "After the lecture I went to his
dressing room and spent an hour and a half with him. He said, ‘Jack, you’re
a walking garbage can.’"

Soon after, LaLanne constructed a makeshift gym in his back yard. "I had
all these firemen and police working out there and I kind of used them as
guinea pigs," he said.

He said his own daily routine usually consisted of two hours of
weightlifting and an hour in the swimming pool.

"It’s a lifestyle, it’s something you do the rest of your life," LaLanne
said. "How long are you going to keep breathing? How long do you keep
eating? You just do it."

One of the pots had a crack in it, while the other pot was perfect and always
delivered a full portion of water.

At the end of the long walk from the stream to the house, the cracked pot
arrived only half full.

For a full two years this went on daily, with the bearer delivering only one
and a half pots full of water to his house.

Of course, the perfect pot was proud of its accomplishments, perfect for
which it was made.

But the poor cracked pot was ashamed of its own imperfection, and miserable
that it was able to accomplish only half of what it had been made to do.

After 2 years of what it perceived to be a bitter failure, it spoke to the
water bearer one day by the stream. "I am ashamed of myself, and because this
crack in my side causes water to leak out all the way back to your house."

The bearer said to the pot, "Did you notice that there were flowers only on
your side of the path, but not on the other pot’s side?

That’s because I have always known about your flaw, and I planted flower
seeds on your side of the path, and every day while we walk back, you’ve
watered them.

For two years I have been able to pick these beautiful flowers to decorate
the table. Without you being just the way you are, there would not be this
beauty to grace the house"

Each of us has our own unique flaws. We’re all cracked pots. But it’s the
cracks and flaws we each have that make our lives together so very
interesting and rewarding.