Sunday Story...Every Breath You Take

Sunday Story…Every Breath You Take

Imagine, for a moment, that your day has started in the same way most of them do. You get up, make your bed, start the coffee, brush your teeth and turn on the water for your shower. You are thinking about the various things you need to do today, making lists in your head and mentally racing through the rest of your week. You check the water temperature and step into the shower.

3 days later you wake up in the intensive care unit of your local hospital with tubes going in and out of every orifice in your body, including some that weren’t there a few days ago, machines beeping incessantly and the still yet busy noise of cheating death and life kept to a tenuous thread all around you. You have no idea how you ended up here or what happened to land you here. Like Gregor Samsa’s metamorphosis into a giant cockroach you have just awoken into some twilight zone surrealistic world you never knew existed. You have no idea how long you have been here, no idea what day it is, no idea of much of anything at all.

Slowly with help from your family and friends you put things together…you had an “event” and actually died that morning twice. The “event” was simple simple…your aortic arteries decided to dissect and stop delivering blood to your heart and now you need a new one. You are not yet 30 years old and thought, up until 3 days ago, that you were in the best of health. At this point you have 2 options for leaving the hospital…get a new heart or go out through the morgue doors.

The above shortened and edited story happened recently to a very near and dear friend of mine. She got a heart and today is a very different person from the person the three days before her “event”. Her life has been irrevocably changed and transformed.

Each act from this point forward is a gift. Every breath is special and unexpected. Simple things like getting in and out of the car, walking the dog, and the sight of a sailboat on the lake. After something like this each of us would wonder…Why me? Why didn’t I die? Why did I get a 2nd and 3rd chance? What purpose am I supposed to fulfill? What am I supposed to learn? Who am I supposed to teach? Where do I go from here?

Each of us has been gifted a precious human existence. But this is a gift that can be taken at any moment, without warning. It seems too many of us live as if we are going to live forever. Immortality would be a curse…there would be no reason to find your purpose, no sense of urgency to get anything done.

Too often it takes some big “event” to shake us out of our complacency, out of our desire to be average, normal, out of our lives of quiet desperation. Do you really need to wake up 3 days from now in the hospital to get your attention? How about you wake up tomorrow and start living a life of purpose on purpose?

Can you get up tomorrow full of gratitude, full of abundance for everything and everyone in your life and accept all of those things as the perfection that they are?

I have financial challenges, so do you and there are people who have no food or money. Be grateful. Maybe you have health issues, are in physical pain or your body does not perform the way it used to but you are not in a coffin yet. Be grateful. Maybe your family is in turmoil, your spouse or children are challenging with their behaviors to epic tragedy proportions., Somewhere there is a parent wishing their child could utter any word even a cross one. Be Grateful.

Your “event” is happening right now. You are dying as you read this. So what are you going to do? Roll over and pull the dirt in? Or are you going to snap out of your torpor, your self-imposed hibernation of spirit and start living the life you were meant to live. The world has changed…it has been changing but some of us (me) missed the signals. Rather than being served we must now become the servants. We must discover our purpose and start living like we have a purpose and greet every day, every moment with gratitude, graciousness, and grandiose gladness. After all it may be our last. Take charge of your life instead of expecting life to live you. Get out and into the world, your hands in the dirt, your feet in the dance and your head in the clouds. You are a child of spirit and it is time you answered the call with vision, purpose and gratitude.

But you don’t have to…you can continue to live in terminal normality, numbing your mind with inane and meaningless entertainment, killing your body with bad food and no exercise, ignoring your spirit by complaining, criticizing and condemning your loved ones and others. It is your choice. If you like the life you have…great! Keep doing what you are doing and you will keep getting what you have always gotten. But if you want to get out of your rut (grave) we need to get cracking Now. Let’s find a vision, a tree you want to climb, a purpose and, meaning to get of bed in the morning and face the dawn with energy, enthusiasm and excitement. The world needs you. I need you…your gratitude, your abundance, your sense of wonder and excitement, your unbridled zest for completing a mission only you can complete. Throughout history there are stories of a hero on a quest that takes them away from home and places them in harm’s way. A quest that challenges their core beliefs and questions who they really are, and what their real purpose is. A quest is not a quest unless you might lose your life.

Guess what…You are going to lose your life. In this quest you are going to die. The only real question is whether you are going to die while on your quest to find and fulfill your purpose, to live every moment like it was your last, to serve yourself, your community and your world, the quest to find gratitude in every moment in every breath, to live in optimum health and fitness. Or are you going to stay on the couch waiting to die while watching another repeat of CSI?

Your vision of your life, you quest should be yours…not mine or anyone else’s. I want you to find your highest and best and live into your highest and best every moment for the rest of your life.

Health, wealth, happiness and purpose are your birthright. If you don’t have the life you want we should talk heart to heart…soon. I want you to have and live the life you want and desire. Before your “event” comes around!

Namaste
John
“Teaching Focus, Inspiring Transformation”
www.martialartsnevada.com

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Sunday Story...Pain and Pleasure

Sunday Story…Pain and Pleasure

In life we are often making decisions based on the Pain vs. Pleasure rule. Does the pleasure of continuing my current behavior outweigh the pain of changing my behavior? Unfortunately, for most people, pleasure wins.

A friend of mine went for a physical and was told that his blood pressure was high enough that his commercial drivers’ license was going to be revoked. That’s right revoked. You can’t drive anymore. You can’t keep your job. You won’t be able to provide for your family. And on and on and on. He had a choice…and the choice was pretty simple…fix the blood pressure and keep your job, don’t fix it and lose your job. Based on the pain vs. pleasure principle he got to decide which was worse, the pleasure of his old habits or the pain of making new habits (and keeping his job and maybe his life).

Just the other day I overheard someone saying they wished they had the body the other person had. The reply was that the answer lied in proper diet. This person had discovered what would work for him in his eating regimen. Upon hearing that the first person had an answer why eating like that just would not work for him. Yet he wanted the same results. I hear this all the time. The pain of learning a new way of eating was too much and it was much easier to stay with the pleasure of old habits.

Here is a way to improve your health. But you don’t use that method. Do you want to lower your blood pressure? Exercise daily, change your diet, stop smoking. Yet you don’t do those things. Maybe you really don’t want to have lower blood pressure. Maybe the pleasure of all those other habits outweighs the pain of high blood pressure (and a possible stroke, heart disease or death).

So why don’t we do what we all know we should? I know people who still smoke. They know their health would be better if they did not smoke. They know that the habit will eventually ruin their health. Yet they continue to smoke.

I know diabetic people who over consume food that exacerbates their condition. I know of people who continue with jobs and careers that they hate. People with liver transplants who keep consuming alcohol. Bypass surgery survivors who don’t change the very diet that caused their life threatening condition. What is up with this attitude?

None of us is going to live forever. We are living under a death sentence, every one of us. Yet so many of us choose to live lives filled with bad food, mediocre relationships and poor intellectual stimulation. Last week we talked about freedom of choice. So I guess it is a choice we make to live in a way that creates sickness and disease in our physical bodies. A choice to accept the short term pleasure of our current habits instead of the pain it will take to create new ones.

Let’s be honest …if there was a pill that had us all be good looking (whatever that is), in great shape (whatever that is), at our perfect weight forever without struggle (whatever that is), and in perfect health (whatever that is) we would all take the pill. Isn’t that the premise that the cosmetic and plastic surgery industry is built upon? Isn’t that the premise that every diet plan, book, or guru is based on? Isn’t that the promise of every natural health food supplement is based on? Isn’t that the same promise that pharmaceutical drugs make? Take this pill and get_______ (fill in the blank). And it works because we all want to believe that there is an easy way out. A process that does not entail, discipline, work, sweat, motivations, tears, focus, and maybe even some blood.

We are not just talking about food or exercise here my friends. What about the pleasure we get from stuffing our minds with the trash that comes across our TV screens? The toxic news reports? The “reality” shows that lead us to believe that bad behavior is the best answer in any situation? How hard is it going to be to unplug from that constant stream of car crashes, stupid people and train wreck relationships. Will you hurt when you do? And what pleasure will you get after you are unplugged? This is the fear…that there is nothing on the other side. That without the tube entertaining me I will be bored, uninteresting or out of the loop. In order to change and transform I need to find the pleasure in my new habits.

What about a change in your learning habits? Or how about your personal growth? Or your outlook on life? Are you stuck in a rut (a shallow grave) afraid of the pain it is going to cause to climb out? There was once a movie where everyone live in a big bubble because they all thought the air outside was toxic, that the sunshine would kill them and everyone stayed inside until one person was willing to endure the pain of going outside. It turns out there was no toxic environment. And the pleasure that came from the change was so immense that the pain was soon forgotten.

You get to decide…the pleasure of continuing to do what you are doing and getting what you have always gotten or the pain of shifting, changing and transforming and maybe, just maybe, receiving even greater pleasure and satisfaction after the pain. Pain is temporary. Pleasure will return. Just face your fear and go ahead anyway.

Namaste
John
“Teaching Focus, Inspiring Transformation”
www.martialartsnevada.com

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Sunday Story…Make Mine a Cheeseburger

Choices, we all got’em. As a matter of fact I know people who think freedom of choice is all we have. In a spirited discussion the other day a friend of mine argued that freedom of choice was so critical that we should let everyone make their own choices, all the time and they will just have to live with the consequences. To a very large degree I agree with this position. After all in radical responsibility I am responsible for all my choices, even the ones I don’t make consciously. And I am willing and able to accept the consequences of those choices, now, later, and karmically.

The other position is that as a society, a town, a church, a community we get to set the standards we are willing to accept and live with. There are many places in the world where gambling is illegal. And in many of those places it is considered immoral, in other words it is against the code of ethics that the community considers good and safe. In other places gambling is OK, legal and considered by the community a good way to spend time and money. You get to decide. If you do not agree you can try to get the community to change, you can move, or you can just grit your teeth and bear it. It really is up to you.

This is true of every group or tribe you may belong to. There are certain standards that each tribe considers OK. You belong to many different tribes. Each one of them has their own peculiarities. You get to see if you can put up with them or not. If the answer is not then you need to find a different tribe more to your liking or change the standards. It doesn’t, however, do much good to just complain about it.

There are some caveats, though. There was a time when Doctors endorsed smoking, even to the point of suggesting it for pregnant women. Cigarettes were given to soldiers in the meal kits. Cigarette manufacturers claimed there were no ill effects that could be traced to smoking. Some people still believe this. Through advertising and marketing we were led to believe that smoking was OK for us. Today there is a warning label on every pack of cigarettes and we are not bombarded by advertising for that particular product. Yet we can still purchase them if we want, even in light of the fact that if used as directed the product will eventually kill you.

Between the manufacturer and the government we were led down a path of belief that allowed us to make an ill informed choice. Is that really a “free” choice?
Here is another, perhaps more insidious, example. Fast food. Fast food is marketed to children. Then the purveyor of fast food sells food that is not good for you. Yet the advertisement would lead you to believe that it is good for you. The government and its inspectors do not stop the purveyor from making false and/or misleading claims. No one stops the manufacturer from creating a product that appeals to children by using a marketing technique and mascots that are aimed at children. Can a child make an informed choice? Is it “free?” To go even further how can you, as an adult, make an informed choice if the information you are given is incomplete or in some cases just wrong? Is there really a “free” choice?

If you define free as the ability to make a choice between several things then I guess it is a free choice. But it may be a choice that is based on wrong, misleading, or manipulated information. For many years cigarette manufacturers buried studies that proved smoking is bad for your health. Fast food restaurants have been resisting food labeling for m any many years now. Until recently French fries (a vegetable) were supposed to be cooked in vegetable oil making a product that would be OK for a vegetarian to eat. Yet many fast food places added beef tallow to the oil in order to achieve a certain taste. They never told anyone, even though this rendered the product non-vegetarian. There are many people in the world for whom eating another living creature is offensive to their religion and their God. Yet you would never know because the restaurant hid the truth. They actually lied about it for many years.

How can you make a free choice in that case? You really can’t, can you? How can I make a choice if the information is not available? I guess I could choose to believe that I should never eat food that is prepared by anyone other than me. But how do I know the food I am eating is safe? I am relying on some outside body to make sure that organic is really organic, that the beef is not contaminated, and that the drinking water is safe. Yet very often these outside bodies are influenced by the very people and companies they are policing. This is a very sticky wicket.

And it takes us back to the choice that we are making around the community, the tribe, we choose to associate with. If our tribe chooses to make it OK to do things we do not agree with we will have to move, get things changed or gut it out and do our best to create a choice we can live with. I choose to try and make changes. But sometimes it is hard to do. Sometimes it feels like a voice crying in the wilderness with no one to hear. But the other choices are even harder.

Thanks for being part of my tribe. Let’s keep making a difference; it is more important now than ever before.

Namaste
John
“Teaching Focus, Inspiring Transformation”
www.martialartsnevada.com

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Sunday Story…You’ve come a long way baby

If you aren’t growing you are dying. There is no future sitting on the couch waiting for the coroner to arrive and load you in his wagon. If your idea of a good time is sitting around watching other people live their lives, you might want to re-think your position. This is your life, whatever it is….whatever it looks like, whatever you do or don’t have. It is your life, not my life. I have mine, thank you and I think I will keep it.

Every once in awhile I look out at the world and wonder what things might have been if I had only done x, y, or z. What would have happened? Who might I have become? Or if I did not do some of things I did do? What then?

This is an exercise in futility. There is no way to know what those outcomes might have been. It may be nice to fantasize about what could have or should have been but the fact is it is only a fantasy.

Even worse is to look out and see what other people have and feel envy and desire for their things. You do not know what they may have given for those things. You do not know what demons are eating at them, driving them to do, be, and get the things you covet. This is not even a fantasy; this is the root of suffering, desire. Besides, do you really want theirs? Or do you want your own that might just look like theirs?

I live an abundant life in an abundant universe. All around me are people who live in the same universe, yet they are racked by anger and sadness at their unfulfilled desires, dreams and hopes. They are living in a scarce universe. A universe where there is never enough, one where each thing is limited and there won’t be enough to go around. A universe like that does not sound like a lot of fun to me.

So how do we get from one to the other? How do we go from scarcity to abundance? How do we get from living in regret to living into our dreams? How do we stop living to die and start just plain living?

It all starts very simply, and with gratitude. When I start and end each day with thoughts of gratitude and thanks, the world will begin to change. When I am thankful for all the things I do have it is hard to be mad about the things I don’t have.

In India, Mumbai, I believe, there is a whole culture around what is known as “rag picking”. This is just a nice way of saying I live in a dumpster and pick out the recyclable and re-usables that I can re sell for money. In India the dumpsters are like large bins…think of the areas we put dumpsters in…and yes people live in them. And they protect them, like you protect your home. Because my trash bin is better than yours. That is right, people are coveting each other’s trash bin. The ultimate in scarcity mind set, yet that trash bin is better than no trash bin. Maybe having gratitude for what you have would start changing your world there too.

After gratitude comes acceptance. I accept the way things are. I cannot go back and change them to be something else. What is done is done. I can’t change the color of my skin or my place of birth. I can’t go back and get a redo on past decisions. Accept those things with the gratitude of lessons learned and move on.

After acceptance is change and growth. I will change my mind about the things I cannot actually change and I will change the things that are within my power to change. If I want to earn more money I can set goals and make a plan and earn more money. If I want to live somewhere else, I can get a map, make a plan and go. If I want to travel the world I can figure out how to do that too.

Envy does not serve you; it serves some portion of your ego that wants you to be unhappy. Scarcity is not a fact. Neither, for that matter, is abundance. The world just is. The trash bin I live in the trash bin I live in. I get to create abundance or scarcity in every moment. The reality of scarcity or abundance only exists in my mind. Just like when you look through binoculars…one end brings things closer, the other end further away. And the truth of the matter is that neither end is the fact they are just the looking glass we are using today.

Wake up in the morning thankful for another day that wasn’t promised. Wake up and express gratitude for all the wondrous things in the world, including you. Get up and accept those things that just are…rain, shine, snow, traffic jams, or sniffling children. Decide what things you can change today. Make a plan to do that and implement your plan to change those things in your world that will give all the joy, stuff, or satisfaction you really want.

Fear is only false evidence appearing real. You get to create what is real and what is not real. Decide to live abundantly, today, tomorrow and then some.

Namaste
John
“Teaching Focus, Inspiring Transformation”
www.martialartsnevada.com

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Sunday Story...A Gift

Sunday Story…A Gift
Seth Godin in “Linchpin” talks about the gift. The gift of your art. And your art is what you do with emotional content. Are you a waitress? Do you deliver your art with joy and verve and love? It’s art. Maybe you teach math to middle schoolers. Do you bring your joy and zest and playfulness to the classroom? It’s art. Maybe you drive forklift in a warehouse, back and forth, here and there, all day long. Are you smiling, changing the tenor of your workplace, or looking for ways to make your job more successful? It’s art.

It used to be that “art” was painting or sculpting or making music. What if art is everything you do with energy, emotion, and enthusiasm? What if art is what you put heart and soul into…even washing dishes? And it really becomes art when I give it away. As a matter of fact it might only be art when I give it away.

I recently saw a video on the Karma Clinic in Oakland California. Dr. Shah operates the clinic as a gift. Patients can pay it forward but they do not get bills for their treatment. She gives each of them a gift. The gift of health as art.

There are a couple of restaurants in the world that operate as a gift. You eat and there is no bill. You pay what you can; you pay what you think your meal is worth. These places are fairly successful and in ways that exceed any financial considerations. The gift of food as art.

You are doing art every day (I hope). Art fills your soul. Art moves you in ways that were not previously imaginable. When you do your art you are serving a purpose greater than yourself.

And when you give your art away you feed the universe. The recipient is fed, certainly. But you the giver of the gift of art may be the biggest recipient. When I give the gift of my art it comes back to me in large and unexpected way. There is no doubt in my mind the Dr. Shah is going to be very well rewarded for the gift of health she gives away to every patient. And not in the afterlife either. At the very least she will be rewarded knowing she made art and she got it in the hands of the people who really needed it.

So how do we reconcile giving the gift of art to the world and still pay the bills? The electric company, the landlord, or the garbage man are hung up on getting paid for their services. They are not embracing the art as gift idea yet. Dr. Shah has faith that there will be enough generosity to cover her overhead. This is a huge leap…a larger leap than most of us can accept.

For many of you this idea won’t require a huge shift. Do your job in a way that conveys your energy and emotion, your joy and happiness and it becomes art. You won’t need to go to your boss and ask for a raise because you are now treating your job as art and giving your art to everyone you come into contact with. Remember the teachers you had in school who truly loved their jobs and every one they came into contact with? That was their art. They did not get paid more than the cranky old curmudgeon down the hall. As a matter of fact they often got paid less. When you shift from doing a job to making art you won’t necessarily get a fatter paycheck. But because you are doing art and you are giving it freely you might get rewarded.

What if I gave all my lessons for free? When someone said, “how much are lessons?” can I say you get to pay what you can, what you think they are worth? Is this possible? Can I explain to people who are frightened to take responsibility in life to take responsibility for choosing their own payment? Is this the new economic model? Can it even be called economics? Isn’t the phrase “gift economy” a contradiction?

When I give you a gift I have no expectation of reward, not now not later. So how can I explain that I am going to give you the gift of my art but the electric bill still needs to be paid? I am not sure this is possible even if I want it to be. Is it possible to say, “Lessons used to cost $125.00 per month but now I want to give them to you as a gift. You can pay as much or as little as you wish. You can pay what you think this art is worth.”? A serious leap. But then I already have many people on scholarships, reduced and no pay maybe it isn’t such a stretch.

And the real question becomes how giving my art as a gift will change the art itself. Will it become even greater, more passionate, and more powerful after I take the money element away from it? As I write this today I have a pit in my stomach and a joy in my heart. A large part of me wants to shift this in this direction so badly. And another large part is scared to death.

Thanks Seth for starting this path of inquiry. And I hate you for starting this path of inquiry. If any of you have any comments, suggestions, or ideas along these lines, please shoot them my way!

Namaste
John
“Teaching Focus, Inspiring Transformation”
www.martialartsnevada.com

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Sunday Story...Talk, Talk,Talk

Sunday Story…Talk, Talk, Talk

Last week a friend of mine was told she might lose her job. BUT she was told there was a 95% chance that she would NOT lose her job. She focused on the 5% chance. She lost a night of sleep and a grand amount of tears and stress over the whole non-existent ordeal. Instead of knowing that a 95% chance was the focus, she chose to spend her time and energy on the 5%. Why?

Her self talk led her down this road. She convinced herself that she was going to lose her job and her career and would have to go back 20 years and start all over. She is great at what she does. She is well liked and well respected by both her co-workers and her bosses. There is no way she will ever need to go back yet she boot-kicked herself down a very ugly road.

How is it that 2 people can experience the same trauma and for one of them it is devastating and leads to a life of dissolution and destruction. And the other one finds strength and inspiration and hope in the same horrific events? How can one person in a concentration camp give up and die and another help others to live?

The one true freedom each of us has the ability to choose how we will react, how we will think about any given situation. A large part of this choice is how we talk to ourselves, how we see our place in the world.

If you see yourself as a victim you will be victimized.

If you tell yourself you are ugly you are.

If you tell yourself you are special and precious you will be.

If you see yourself as nothing, so it will be.

If you get up on Monday with dread and a pit in your stomach at the prospect of the week ahead how can you expect to have a great week? Not to mention that you probably ought to find a different way to spend your time!

If you get up feeling heroic you will be a hero.

If you get up and say to yourself I am so grateful for (fill in the blank) you will be grateful.

How often do you get up and start beating yourself up first thing in the morning? The rest of the world can never get you to feel as bad about yourself as you can…after all you are an expert on making yourself feel---you have been doing it all your life!

So what can be done? How can you start seeing the glass as ½ full instead of ½ empty? What can you do to change your mind?

What you say to yourself is critical. You cannot call yourself names and expect the rest of the world to love you.

Here are some concrete steps to change your mind, change your attitude and eliminate the “stinkin’ thinkin’” that might be ruling your life.
1. Develop an attitude of gratitude. When you wake up in the morning start the morning, before you roll out of bed, think of one thing you can be grateful for. Better yet think of 3 things you can be grateful for. No matter how bad you may think things are there is always something you can find that is good. It might be as simple as realizing you don’t live in a 3rd world country with no running water and indoor plumbing.
2. When you look in the mirror in the morning say aloud something nice to yourself. For instance…”I am kind and loving”…or…”I am vital and alive”. If it too hard to say it aloud write it down and tape it to the mirror so you can read it as you brush your teeth.
3. Commit to doing 3 random acts of kindness every day. Things you have to go out of your way to do. Paying the toll for the car behind you. Stopping and connecting with the homeless person panhandling on the corner, recognizing and connecting with the humanity that is behind the struggle that person is living with. It is amazing what happens to us when we do kind things for other people. There is a shift in our soul that takes place when we give without expectation.
4. Turn off the noise. We live in a very noisy world. Television, radio, I-pod, video are all contributing to the constant chatter that goes on in our world. Even if it was all positive (and let’s be honest it is mostly negative) the noise level is constant and never ending. When was the last time you just turned everything off? When was the last time you went an hour without saying a word or hearing a word? Interesting things happen when we get quiet. Commit to a 15 minute stretch of quiet every day…listen to your breath, listen to the rocks move but stop the noise long enough to hear yourself think!
5. Read one thing every day that will inspire, uplift, create thought, and challenge a belief. It could be a quote, a sentence, a verse…there are lots of “365 books” out there. You can subscribe to a service that emails you one every day. Simple and easy.

Stop beating yourself up! Start living the life you were meant to live. Start by telling yourself how great you are because you are great! You were put here on this earth to do amazing and wonderful things. And you are doing them right now. Start realizing just how powerful you really are.

Namaste
John
“Teaching Focus, Inspiring Transformation”
www.martialartsnevada.com

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Sunday Story...Whose Problem is it Anyway?

Sunday Story…Whose problem is it anyway?

There was a time when I could live independently in the world. I could live off the land and do more than just survive. I am pretty sure that is no longer the case in North America, Europe and some parts of Asia. Maybe in Africa it might be possible. I am not sure. We have changed our world in a way that we are interconnected and inter-related to everyone in the world.

I had a conversation recently with someone bemoaning the lack of “self reliance” in people today. That people just can’t take care of themselves. They expect the world to feed them, clothe, them, take care of them. And it is not the world’s job to do that. The world was not created for your private and personal enjoyment. And although I agree with this premise on the surface it really is not true is it?

I cannot raise cows in my back yard for beef. I might get away with some chickens. I can have a garden and gather produce 3 or 4 months out of the year. So in terms of self reliance I need some help with food procurement. But I am responsible for my own food.

I cannot cure a hide for my shoes; I don’t have the knowledge or the time. I can’t plant cotton to weave cloth for my own clothes. I can’t make a mattress. I need a community to help with those things. But I am responsible for getting the money to pay for them.

Self reliance died a lot of years ago. And although it is still possible to get off the grid, drop out, tune in and be your own person, it is definitely not easy. The days of going out in the woods and living for years on your own are over, at least for most of us in the modern, urban, civilized world. But personal responsibility is not dead.

There is a lot of talk about hunter-gatherer diets. Paleo or Primal diets. Eat like a cave man, provided the cave man had a Whole Foods nearby. We give lip service to living simply and sustainably yet visit Starbucks and Mega-grocery weekly (or daily). We are responsible for how the world looks. If you didn’t go to Starbucks, or Wal-Mart, and I didn’t go, and our friends didn’t go then those places would disappear. They are not disappearing. Our landscape looks the way it looks because we like it that way. We are responsible.

So…how much responsibility should I take on for your life? For your food, shelter, well being? Granted I may be responsible for my own life. But am I responsible for yours? What if you don’t want to work anymore and have no money? Am I responsible to support you? Am I going to accept responsibility if you die?

Only you get to answer those questions.

Does a child dying of hunger affect me? Am I responsible?

Remember when you were told to clean your plate because of the starving children in ______ (fill in the country of your choice). I never got that when I was young…how cleaning my plate affect those kids over there. And why don’t we just pack up these peas and send them over there since I really don’t want to eat them? Children in (name a country) won’t get more or less food based on my consumption.

Or will they? How is my consumption of food, goods, and services tied to people ½ ways across the world? Have you bothered to look at this? Do you really care?

We throw away tons of food every day in this country. What if we responsibly only took what we really needed? Not what we wanted, or desired or, lusted for. Would there be more for someone else? Would the price change so someone else might be able to afford it? Why does a pair of Nikes cost a month of salary in Kenya and only a few hours of work in this country? How it that my responsibility? And what can I do to change it?

That child in Kenya won’t get an education for lack of shoes. Because he lacks education and knowledge he becomes helpless to improve his lot in life. Because his life appears hopeless he may become a refugee, or a criminal, or a beggar on the streets. And when his life becomes more and more hopeless and insignificant all the possibilities he was put upon this earth to complete go unfinished and unrealized. All because he didn’t have shoes.

We could say the same thing about food or clean water. How many great minds have we lost through this terrible attrition? How many ideas that could have affected each one of us never came to fruition? How many Einsteins, Edisons, Gandhis, or Jeffersons have been lost to hunger, lack of education or pure hopelessness?

That is how it affects me. That is why it is my responsibility to help, to connect, to live in a way that may change the world. And in fact the way I live does change the world. Self reliance is a lie. No one can be alone any more. No man is an island unto himself. We are all connected. Our lives are interwoven with each other. We need to give each other a hand up not a hand out.

Do something kind today. Have gratitude for all the things you have. And try to figure out how to share your gifts, skill and talents (not just your money) with the rest of the world. We all need you. We all need each other to be the highest and best we were meant to be.

Namaste
John
“Teaching Focus, Inspiring Transformation”
www.martialartsnevada.com

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