After I began to straighten out my life, I tried to help others stop drinking, using drugs and doing other harmful things. During that time, I wrote this:

To My Friend

I knew that you were hurting … but I couldn’t ease your pain
I knew that you needed someone near … so I always tried to be there
I didn’t understand you … but I listened anyway

And slowly you became a part of me … and I part of you
So when you died … I cried … because I loved you
And, yet, I had to sit there helplessly and watch you kill yourself

I couldn’t get you drug-free … I couldn’t’ give you God
You had to find these for yourself … but somehow you weren’t able
Or maybe just too scared … so I sat and watched you die

I’d hoped it would not end in death … for part of me must die as well
And I cried out, “Oh, God, why must it be?”
And, yet, I know within myself that death is part of life

I know I tried as best I could to make you understand
I needed you to help me grow by doing what I could
Still, yet, you never really knew … I cared

So when you died… I cried

I couldn’t take it another day…

Something had to give…

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Click on Read More below to see what readers have been asking and what my answers are …
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Contrary to what many people seem to believe, freedom is not the absence of responsibility … instead it is the acceptance of responsibility … the responsibility for ourselves … we are truly free when we accept total responsibility for our thoughts, feelings and actions.

We cannot always help what we think or feel but we have absolute control over what we do about those thoughts and feelings. The ability to choose how we want to act and react is the ultimate freedom.

I’m going to use my job as an example. I consider computers and other electronic gadgets to be toys and I like to play with my toys a lot. At the moment, I earn my living teaching computer network engineering to college students at a private college.

Here’s how I see my job.  Read more…

Contentment is the midpoint between a state of being “high” and being “low”. It is not a state of being where there are no problems or where you have everything you want. Neither one of those conditions is part of the NORMAL human experience.

Problems are a part of everyday living and I have never met anyone who has everything they want.

Contentment is the point in your life where nothing major is going wrong. It is a state where everything is OK.
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Happiness isn’t joy. It isn’t being “high”. Instead happiness is contentment. When you are content, you don’t feel that there is anything missing in your life, you believe that things are the way they should be, that you are OK.

Does that mean that you have to have everything you want? Read more…

Beliefs come from many different sources such as what our parents, family members and religious leaders teach us, from what we observe happening around us and the things we experience directly as well as from what our culture (including music, books, television and movies) teaches us.

We are constantly being programmed Read more…

A belief is something that we use to define the world around us. The fact that we believe something doesn’t make it true nor does it make it false.

Small children believe in Santa Clause, the tooth fairy and that everything mommy and daddy tell them is true. They also believe that Read more…

Some people define success as having lots of money and material possessions. Many people talk about power and celebrity status. Others talk about love, family and self esteem.

Who’s right? … Or is there really a “right” answer?

I define success as having enough resources to do the things I really want to do…the things that bring me happiness and contentment. The resources can be money, time, material things, friends, family, education, social status, power, etc. It all depends on what you want to do…what brings you happiness and contentment. The answer is different for each individual.

Do you know what you really want to do with your life?