Insight Into Attitude. My Circle of Friends

Viktor Frankel, Thomas Merton, C.S. Lewis, Saint Paul, Dali Lama, Eckart Tolle, Bill W. and Doctor Bob. For over three years these people have been my circle of friends. I've never been alone. In solitude, yes. But never alone. They've sat with me. Walked with me. Hunted and fished with me in fact, but never bagged anything we could eat. Of course, man can not live on fish and fowl alone and these people, these friends, provided what I needed to survive: Insight into attitude and what attitude means to life.

Now that this has happened, what am I going to do about me? That's the question I ask myself repeatedly through each day. What do I mean to life? What do I mean to this life situation? Frankel and Tolle gave me those nuggets. They changed my habit of reacting in ways that add chaos to carnage. Where I thought life owed me dividends, I discovered I had gold to give. My dark past is my greatest possession. In God's hands, it can be the key to avoiding misery and even death for others. Interesting that there is no self promise in that knowledge. The teachings of all people with awareness included the insight that our life is not for ourselves to take all that we can get, but to give all that we have so that others may live. Where have I seen that lesson in the New Testament?

Native American way of life was almost wiped out. By the survivor's decision to "Be" in an environment hostile to their mind, body, and spirit, today we their key to avoiding misery and death. These people lived their way of life accepting and flowing with life situations the way a river flows with ease from its source to the ocean...always with nature.

Better to remain humble like the Valley, than arrogant like the Mountain. All life moves easily through the Valley avoiding the Mountain. The ego wants the mountain. It's there waiting to be challenged, but I don't have to accept. The reward of moving the mountain is compensation to ego. The return of the Valley is the treasure we give to others. I can't take my ego with me, and I will leave everything that matters for life.