Man Shows Up At His Own Funeral

Reuters recently reported a very odd story out of Brazil. Several circumstances had to come together exactly as they did in this case in order for this uncanny incident to have happened.

“A 41-year-old car washer from northeastern Brazil shocked his family by turning up at his own wake after his family mistakenly identified a murdered local man at the morgue as him, local media reported Tuesday.

Family and friends in the town of Alagoinhas in Bahia state were gathered around the body of another car washer resembling Gilberto Araujo when he showed up after being told of his “death” by a friend who had spotted him in the street.

“I said, ‘Guys, I’m alive, pinch me,'” Araujo told the O Globo news website. He had not seen his family for about four months until then.

His mother, shopkeeper Maria Menezes, said some of those attending the wake fainted while others fled.

“It was a fright. … I’m very happy because what mother has a son that they say is dead then turns up alive?” she said.

On first learning of the confusion, Araujo tried to call an acquaintance at the wake to inform them he was alive, but his call was dismissed as a prank. The corpse has now been returned, O Globo reported.”

Let’s allow this bizarre event to spark our imagination. What would it be like if you so thoroughly committed to personal change; if you so dramatically altered your approach to problem solving and relationships and communication with others; that even those close to you comment that they hardly recognize the new you?

What would have to happen in order for this to become a reality for you?

There is a remarkable event that occurs every 24 hours everywhere on Earth: the sun rises and a new day begins. And with each new day comes new

opportunities to choose differently than the day before, to undergo renewal, to forgive and to experience forgiveness, and to determine that the past does not have to equal the future.

We have the right to decide what parts of the past must perish and what we will give life to as we head into the future. I challenge you, TODAY, to decide you are dead to everything within your control that has not worked out for you so well. Make that decision the first of a series of meaningful action steps on the road toward an incremental change from your old life to your new life; the new you.

Benefit #3 of taking responsibility for your life: it is a positive prerequisite to powerful personal transformation.