A LIFE FULL OF RICHES

This man expresses so eloquently my very feelings, I can only but quote him here in full.

A LIFE FULL OF RICHES by Karl R. Green
This material world constantly reminds me of what I don’t have. But somehow I still feel wealthy.
It was early December 2003, my first season as a Salvation Army bell ringer, when I was confronted with the question. I was standing just outside the doorway of a Wal-Mart, offering a "thank you" and a smile to each person who dropped a donation into my red kettle. A neatly dressed woman and her young son walked up to the kettle stand. While she searched her purse for some cash, the boy looked up at me. I can still see the confusion and curiosity in his eyes as he asked, "Are you poor?"
"Well," I stammered, trying to think, "I have more than some people, but not as much as others." His mother scolded him for the social no-no, and they hurried off to do their shopping. His question, however, did not leave me.
I’ve never thought of myself as ‘poor’, but I can’t deny certain facts. Every time I fill out my 1040 form, I fall into one of the lowest income brackets. In the past 35 years, I’ve taken just one vacation trip. My TV is a black-and-white set that someone gave me eight years ago.
Yet I feel nothing more than a passing whim to attain the material things so many people have. My 1999 car shows the wear and tear of 105,000 miles. But it is still dependable. My apartment is modest, but quiet and relaxing. My clothes are well suited to my work, which is primarily outdoors. My minimal computer needs can be met at the library.
In spite of what I don’t have, I don’t feel poor. Why? I’ve enjoyed exceptionally good health for 53 years. It’s not just that I’ve been illness-free, it’s that I feel vigorous and spirited. Exercising is actually fun for me. I look forward to long, energizing walks. And I love the ‘can do’ attitude that follows.
I also cherish the gift of creativity. When I write a beautiful line of poetry, or fabricate a joke that tickles someone, I feel rich inside. I’m continually surprised a the insights that come through my writing process. And talking with so many interesting writer friends is one of my main sources of enjoyment.
But there is one vital area of my life where I am not so well off. In a society that spends so much emotional energy on the pursuit of possessions, I feel out of place.
When I was younger, there was an exceptionally interesting person I dated. What was most important to her, she told me, was "what’s on the inside." I thought I had found someone special to share my life with. Then I took her to see my apartment. At the time, I lived in a basement efficiency with a few pieces of dated furniture. The only new, comfortable chair was the one at my desk. Shortly after her visit, our relationship went straight south.
The seemingly abrupt change in her priorities was jolting. It remains a most memorable turning point in my personal journey.
In contrast to relationships, stuff just doesn’t mean that much to me. I think most people feel the same way - except when there are social consequences to not having particular items. There is a commercial on the radio that begins, "Everybody wants a high-end TV..." The pressure to purchase is real. It may be true that everybody wants a high-end TV. After all, nobody wants to be a nobody.
But I’m happy to live without one. In fact, not being focused on material goods feels quite natural to me. There are many people throughout the world who would consider my lifestyle to be affluent.
Near the end of the year, when I put on the Salvation Army’s red apron, something changes inside me. Instead of feeling out of place economically, I begin to feel a genuine sense of belonging. As I ring my bell, people stop to share their personal stories of how much it meant to be helped when they were going through a rough time. People helping people is something I feel deeply connected to. While I’m ringing the bell, complete strangers have brought me hot chocolate, leaving me with a lingering smile. Countless individuals have helped to keep me worm with the sentiments of the season: "Thank you for ringing on such a cold day." "Can I get you a cup of coffee?" Bless you for your good work." December is the time of year I feel wealthiest.
Over the past four years, I’ve grown t understand more about myself because of a single question from a curious child. As I’ve examined what it means to be poor, it has become clear to me what I am most thankful for: both my tangible and my intangible good fortune.
Newsweek 12/24/07

In The Universe, Just Existing Is Enough- - By Chuck Lunney

Have you ever had one of those moments when an idea or concept suddenly makes complete and total sense? One of those times when you slap your forehead and say, "Wow! Why didn't I think of that?" I've had those experiences several times in my life, and each time it's been a profound event for me. Earlier in my life I had such a "eureka" moment studying biology when I finally understood the concept that all of life is related using a very simple process, and that there isn't anything about humanity that is special or separate from the rest of the flora and fauna on Earth. From there it wasn't too great a leap to begin questioning whether a deity could fit into the equation, although attempting to successfully navigate that leap was a challenge. I began to consider that instead of needing input from a deity to keep things functioning, the Universe does fine on its own. It dawned on me that the only type of deity that could possibly be involved would be completely impersonal and utterly removed from this Universe, one that set the whole thing up and has stayed away from meddling in it since then. The way I see it, if Life can arise and diversify on its own - and if the planets, stars and galaxies can, too - there just isn't room for a deity, except perhaps at the very start. Physics, chemistry and biology all combine in an elegant synthesis to provide a comprehensive explanation for why the Universe looks as it does, the emergence of Life on this planet and the way in which Life's diversity arose. I began to realize how small and insignificant humans are to the Universe, and how absurd it would be for all of that vastness to be subservient to a few humans on one small, backwater planet in only one of billions of solar systems, amid billions and billions of galaxies. As I thought about it, I decided that although I recognized the possibility of such a "starter" deity, I wasn't going to worship or bow down to such a being. At that moment, the light went on and I realized I didn't need a god to live and love - just existing was enough. Written by Chuck Lunney

Attitude Is Everything - Author Unknown

John is the kind of guy you love to hate. He is always in a good mood and always has something positive to say. When someone would ask him how he was doing, he would reply, "If I were any better, I would be twins!" He was a natural motivator. If an employee was having a bad day, John was there telling the employee how to look on the positive side of the situation. Seeing this style really made me curious, so one day I went up and asked him, "I don't get it! You can't be a positive person all of the time. How do you do it?" He replied, "Each morning I wake up and say to myself, you have two choices today. You can choose to be in a good mood... or you can choose to be in a bad mood. I choose to be in a good mood. " Each time something bad happens, I can choose to be a victim or... I can choose to learn from it. I choose to learn from it. Every time someone comes to me complaining, I can choose to accept their complaining or... I can point out the positive side of life. I choose the positive side of Life."Yeah, right, it's not that easy," I protested."Yes, it is," he said. "Life is all about choices. When you cut away all the junk, every situation is a choice. You choose how you react to situations. You choose how people affect your mood. You choose to be in a good mood or bad mood. The bottom line: It's your choice how you live your life."I reflected on what he said. Soon thereafter, I left the power industry to start my own business. We lost touch, but I often thought about him when I made a choice about Life instead of just reacting to it.Several years later, I heard that he was involved in a serious accident, falling some 60 feet from a communications tower. After 18 hours of surgery and weeks of intensive care, he was released from the hospital with rods placed in his back. I saw him about six months after the accident. When I asked him how he was, he replied, "If I were any better, I'd be twins.... Wanna see my scars?" I declined to see his wounds, but I did ask him what had gone through his mind as the accident took place. "The first thing that went through my mind was the well-being of my soon-to-be born daughter," he replied. "Then, as I lay on the ground, I remembered that I had two choices: I could choose to live or...I could choose to die. I chose to live.""Weren't you scared? Did you lose consciousness?" I asked...... He continued, "..the paramedics were great. They kept telling me I was going to be fine. But when they wheeled me into the ER and I saw the expressions on the faces of the doctors and nurses, I got really scared. In their eyes, I read 'he's a dead man'. I knew I needed to take action. "What did you do?" I asked."Well, there was a big burly nurse shouting questions at me," said John."She asked if I was allergic to anything. 'Yes, I replied.' The doctors and nurses stopped working as they waited for my reply. I took a deep breath and yelled, 'Gravity'." Over their laughter, I told them "I am choosing to live. Operate on me as if I am alive, not dead."
He lived, thanks to the skill of his doctors, but also because of his amazing attitude... I learned from him that every day we have the choice to live fully.

Attitude, after all, is everything.

Today, remember, is the tomorrow we worried about yesterday.

So plan for tomorrow, but live for today.

My Birthday Post

June 27th, 2007.
A friend wished me a Happy Birthday a bit ago. I am celebrating 61 years of Life here on planet Earth, a member of what has been called the ‘enlightened generation. For me it has indeed been a wonderful Life and I am very glad that I am still here and that my physical/mental condition is not worse than it is. I am thankful for having been alive in these wonderful times, though I have to be honest, I am not at all liking the future I see coming at us. While the technological future looks increasingly exciting, the future of much of our world does not look so good. Recently, we’ve seen news accounts of deformities and disappearances of frogs and other amphibians, disappearing honey bees and song birds. Ocean fish are dying. There seems to be an ever increasing amount of violence amongst the peoples of the world. Drought and famine appear to be increasing as well. I no longer watch scary movies, as the evening news is scary enough.
When I was growing up in the suburbs of Kansas City during the 1950' & ‘60's, we seldom locked the house doors and we left the keys in the car, unlocked. We were encouraged to be friendly to all others, including strangers. We didn’t have to walk around being afraid that someone might accost us, though we stayed out of the ‘bad part of town’.
Well, it’s a different world out there today. The ‘bad’ has invaded every part of town. So I am thankful that I have gotten to live when and where I have, and frankly, I feel somewhat sorry for the youth of today, though I have a feeling that they, too, will feel fortunate to have lived in their time while also feeling sorry for the young of their day. It appears that for much of Life, things are on a downward spiral.
Today I began my sixty-second year. Happy Birthday To Me...I am a part of the Great Baby Boom Generation that is now moving into the final act of human Life. One of the habits I formed many years ago is reading the Obituaries every day. I find it interesting and a great source of inspiration, reading about the lives of the departed ones, who they were and what they had accomplished as individuals here on Earth. The daily obituaries are peppered with my peers, most of whom may have missed out on this third act of Life.
'If,' as Leonard Pitts asks, 'Life's first act is about growing up, coming of age, learning the lessons that shape you, and the second is about acquiring things, getting ahead, building a career, shouldn’t the third be about something bigger than one’s own aspirations and comforts? Shouldn’t it be about doing something, leaving something, creating something that makes Life better for somebody else.' If I, as a member of the Enlightened Generation, am really going to be a part of doing something, or creating and leaving something that has the possibility of making Life better for others, then I had best begin to Change myself, for 'Change,' as Sheldon Stahl tells us, 'begins with one - the power of the individual. It’s not uncommon these days to be overcome with the notion that there is little we can do to alter the flow of the cosmos that sweeps us along in its current. This sense of powerlessness often results in a degree of passivity and paralysis that simply reinforces the notion that we really can’t Change anything, even if we should wish to do so. Yet history provides us with numerous examples of individuals who have made a profound difference. And we must know intuitively that there are among us even now individuals who by their actions are having an impact on our lives and the lives of generations yet unborn. A single drop of water may have no perceptible effect when it falls on stone. However, over time the result of innumerable drips on that stone will be to alter its form. That is to say, the power of one is most often imperceptible. But the power of many individuals united in their vison and in their actions is an altogether different situation. The nature of most societal Change is that it tends to proceed incrementally. Great changes are the exception, not the rule. They seldom emerge full blown, but are the result of a cumulative process over time. And at the root of all such transformation in our society, there must first be a Change in ourselves and in our thinking. Absent such a Change at the individual level, there can be no effective Change at the collective level. There resides in each of us the potential to initiate and to contribute to the process of Change, if we have the will to seize that potential and to act upon it. If we fail to participate in that process, or choose to stand aside, we run the risk of living rather barren lives. For as the futurist Alvin Toffler observed, 'Change is not merely necessary to live - it is Life.' To recognize this reality is to shun the excuse that our power of one, like the drop of water, is bereft of significance. Rather, in choosing action over inaction, we can make manifest the coda of Margaret Mead and join together as atomistic players in helping to Change our world through the combined ‘powers of ones'.' So let the Change begin. One by one, together we can transform the world....

No Spare Change - By Observers

"Change is upon us," says Bill Eckhardt. "It comes at an unnerving pace. Our foreign policy, our economy, our medical system, our means of communication, indeed the very basis of much of our knowledge seems to change daily. Change causes anxiety which can only be calmed with a commitment to educate ourselves so that it becomes less frightening. Change must be a friend rather than a foe. My hope for (today) is that (we) will do better at becoming comfortable with Change. That is quite a task for a society that now doubles it’s knowledge every seven years - but a very necessary one." To which we can at the words of Martin Luther King, Jr. when he said, "One of the great liabilities of history is that all too many people fail to remain awake through great periods of social change. - - One of the great problems of mankind is that we suffer from a poverty of the spirit which stands in glaring contrast to our scientific and technological abundance. - - -The richer we have become materially, the poorer we have become morally and spiritually. - - When scientific power outruns moral power, we end up with guided missiles and misguided men." We don't have any time to spare....
It might be an understatement to say that the human race needs to wake up and Change.
But Will We ?

What's Really Important - True Love and True Relationships

Keep Asking Yourself, "What's Really Important?" By Richard Carlson
It's easy to get lost and overwhelmed in the chaos, responsibilities, and goals of life. Once overwhelmed, it's tempting to forget about and postpone that which is most near and dear to your heart. I've found that it's helpful to keep asking myself, "What's really important?"
As part of my early morning routine, I take a few seconds to ask myself this question. Reminding myself of what's really important helps me keep my priorities straight. It reminds me that, despite my multitude of responsibilities, I have a choice of what is most important in my life and where I put my greatest amount of energy...
Despite the appearance of being overly simplistic, I have found this strategy to be immensely helpful in keeping me on track. When I take a few moments to remind myself of what's really important, I find that I'm more present-moment oriented, in less of a hurry, and that being right loses its appeal. Conversely, when I forget to remind myself of what's really important, I find that I can quickly lose sight of my priorities and, once again, get lost in my own busy-ness. I'll rush out the door, work late....and do other things that are in conflict with the goals of my life.
If you regularly take a minute to check in with yourself, to ask yourself, "What's really important?" you may find that some of the choices you are making are in conflict with your own stated goals. This strategy can help you align your actions with more conscious, loving decisions.
True Love and True Relationships By Unknown Observers
We love those for whom we happily labor, and we happily labor for those whom we love.
Love is the active care and concern for the life, growth and happiness of the ones we love... Care and concern imply another aspect of love; that of responsibility.
Responsibility in its true sense is an entirely voluntary act; it is our response to the needs, expressed or unexpressed, of another human being. Love is the condition which exists when the welfare, well-being and happiness of another human being is almost as important to us as our own welfare, well-being and happiness. This is the true meaning of the word Love
Happy relationships aren't the result to luck. A relationship has to be a constant evolution. Though we each remain as separate, distinct entities, while once we were two, not we are three. The two of us as individuals, and the union which our relationship now forms. In this respect, our love makes us one.
There is, of course, a difference between being 'in love' with someone and truly 'loving' them. Being 'in love' is something we do for ourselves, while 'loving' is something we do for the other person. To love another person, we must really care for them and encourage them in their own personal growth, whatever their direction.
A relationship isn't something we have, it's something we do. It's about attentiveness, anticipating our partner's need and what they like. If we want them to try to fill our life with a little warmth and love, then we have to do that for them. We can't just be takers, we have to be givers, too.
The most important sphere of giving is not that of material things, but lies in the specifically human realm. What can we give to each other?
We can give of ourselves, of our lives. This doesn't not mean that we sacrifice our life for the other - but that we give that which is alive in us; we give of our joy, of our interest, of our understanding, of our knowledge, of our humor, of our sadness, and of all the expressions of that which is alive in us....giving implies to make the other person a giver also and we shall both share in the Joy of the Love that we have brought to Life. This is the meaning of a True Relationship...

The Law Of Convergence

"A Jesuit philosopher, Frenchman Teilhard de Chardin, foretold before his death in 1955 that “a new law of nature has come into force – that of convergence. The hitherto scattered species, Homo sapiens, is being united by a single nervous system for humanity, a living membrane, a single stupendous thinking machine.”
President Kennedy once proclaimed that “those who would make peaceful revolution impossible, make violent revolutions inevitable.
Who could have envisioned mass-produced automobiles back in 1850, airplanes back in 1900, or the information age back in 1950? Don’t stop now thinking about tomorrow. We should reignite our creativity engines, toward the next evolution of humanity.
Others will succeed Henry Ford, the Wright brothers and Bill Gates; and they will facilitate the creation of still another frontier.
And we will lead the world toward whatever is the next evolutionary phase in the progress of Homo sapiens," writes Otto Rieke.
It is important for us to live in the moment, but it is equally important for us to envision the long view of the future. It's kind of like driving on the highway. It's important to know what is directly in front of us, but it is also important to keep an eye on what's coming at us from a distance so that we are better able to prepare for what will soon be directly in front of us. The law of convergence tells us that as our numbers grow and we learn to assimiate other cultures into our own, we naturally will become more acceptive of the fact of our human existence. We truly are just one race - the human race.... If we examine the long view of what life might be like in the next one hundred years, it is impossible to believe that we will remain as we are today...How can we not become one world - all living in the United Nations?