Looking back over my life and thinking about when I was sixteen is a stark contrast to my son's celebration of his sixteenth birthday. A lot has changed since 1979. I left home a year later to prove myself and strike out on my own. I joined the Marines and thought it was a sink or swim option. If what my relatives had suggested I would die there. Not very supportive is that? I had bypassed the chance to go to the US Naval Academy, shrugged off college in New York for art all because of a thing called esteem. I didn't have much of it. Funny thing, it is relatively cheap.
Life is also like that. It is priceless but is taken, given away and undervalued by those that can't create it. Life is the most important thing you own. Be careful how you treat others. Be especially careful what you say to those in your family. Life and death are in the power of the tongue. A parents tone, for example can be crushing like the waves of a storm on the beach. It can erode the fabric of your psyche and cause you to question your worth. You are responsible for more than your own life. We are all connected.
You will never realize that without knowing the power of love. It is true, that love can cover a multitude of sins. Love can erase generational curses. Grandparents often try to correct past mistakes by loving their grandchildren like they should have loved their children the first time around. Love takes no accounting of wrongs. Love allows you to forgive. It benefits all involved. It is always in season, appropriate and en vogue.
The greatest thing we can consciously do with our memories is not to recompense evil for evil. Just because you grew up in an asylum or dysfunctional family, you have a choice not to duplicate it. You have a choice even if it takes super human effort. Most often it does. It is easier to do wrong than right. It is easier to cop out, stop trying, quit, walk out, give up, give in, and surrender. You can't stop doing negatives all the time alone because we weren't made that way. You can convince yourself that you are alright but be socially sick. You can convince yourself that you don't need anybody. You can convince yourself that you can fix what is wrong with you. Everybody will do what is right in there own eyes but in the end it often leads to self destruction. When you reach the end alone, there is no hope left only despair. No person is an island onto themselves.
That is where faith comes in. You must believe in something greater than yourself. You must believe that through this power you can change your circumstances. If not, all is lost. And that is a lie. There is so much you are missing out on. No matter where you are in your life, things can be better for you. When it is pitch black where you are, the sun is shining a few thousand feet above you. It is shining in another part of the world. You just have to change your geography to see it. You don't even know all that you don't know. We limit ourselves, and hurt ourselves with limited thinking. While you still have breathe, you have a chance. Everyday you get up is another day to get it right. I am a witness. (To be continued)
