GIVE

GIVE.  Give your time and talent; be a volunteer for something you feel is worthwhile.  It feels good to do good.  You will enjoy it and you will feel good about yourself.  I give a couple of hours a week to trying to help guys who have gotten themselves into trouble because of alcohol and other drugs.  I don't know if I'm doing them any good, I can only hope that I am.  I do know that trying makes me feel good and that I'm at least trying to give a little back for all that I have been given.  You will have talents that can be used to help others;  there is no better way for you to use them.

IT"S ALL INTERESTING

IT"S ALL INTERESTING.  Life doesn't get boring.  Boring is something we do to  ourselves.
It’s all interesting.  Life doesn't get boring.  Boring is something we do to ourselves.  It seems to me that many people wear boredom as if it was a fashion statement.  “Look at me!  I’m so sophisticated, so cool, that I am above being interested by anything.”  The trap is that they begin to believe it themselves and cut themselves off from experiencing life. Sophistication, true sophistication, means you have the capacity to enjoy more things. It means you can enjoy a Shakespeare play or a ballet.  It doesn’t mean you cannot enjoy an action movie or a square dance.

   "The world is so full of such wondrous things
     that we should all be as happy as kings."

That bit of Lewis Carroll means there is always something in our environment to engage us if we only let it.  Never be "too cool" to enjoy something; that's just denying yourself part of what life is offering.  A spider spinning a web or dealing with an insect it has captured is a “wondrous” thing.  So is watching a crew build a house or a bridge.  Your backyard is a nature preserve filled with all sorts of interesting creatures.  Even schoolbooks sometimes have mind catching stuff in them. 



  

NO VACANCY.  “Don't let anyone live rent free in your head.”  This is a phrase often heard in recovery groups.  It’s a one liner way of saying that we only hurt ourselves when we obsess over what someone else is thinking about us or has done to us or failed to do for us.  Holding a grudge or resentment because someone has hurt you only lets them keep on hurting you with no further effort on their part.  After 9/11, the mantra became "Don't let the terrorists win, get life back to normal."  Apply the same reasoning to one-on-one situations.  I like to remind the people I talk with about this that most people spend about as much time thinking about them as they do thinking about other people.  Someone else said, “Holding on to a resentment is like drinking poison and expecting the other guy to die.”

BLAME YOUR DAD

That's me, don't I look like a grandpa?  I am starting this blog because my son asked me to write a letter to my grandkids that would tell them "What I would like them to know about me and what about life do I want them to know?"  Both parts of the question are more challenging than I expected, so I have decided to try the blog/journal format so I can add to and possibly change what I say over time.  Since this is a public forum, most readers (if there are any) wouldn't be interested in the "What I want them to know about me"  part, so I'm not going to spend time here on that unless I think it will help explain my response to the second part.  I do believe that "What I would like them to know about life" is the basis for some interesting rumination.  I hope that there will be some readers who will offer their own thoughts on the subject.

So, Scarlett, Wyatt and Belle, here are my thoughts on what I think you should know about life.

LIFE IS GOOD!  Believe that with your whole heart.  Be good!  Life is better if you are a positive participant, adding to it not taking away from it.  Being good doesn't just mean obeying your parents and teachers or the law or even the ten commandments.  It means helping when you can help, giving when you can give, sharing when you can share, loving when you can love.  Do these things and I guarantee you will enjoy your life.

SOMEBODY ELSE SAID IT BETTER.  Any ideas I try to pass on to you, I got from somewhere.  Someone said it; someone wrote it; so listen, and read.  Then think about what you have heard and read.  Roll it around in your mind until it makes sense to You.  Read The Prophet by Khalil Gibran; read Everything I Need to Know I learned in Kindergarten by Robert Fulghum; read everything by Dr. Seuss.  Read the opinions of people you don’t agree with.  And then think about why you disagree with them.  Then think about why they might be right and you might be wrong.  Think about why you might be right and they might be wrong.  Think.

That's a start.  I'll try to add more over time.