Sometimes negative words from a friend can hurt. They can cut through the heart like a knife. Words that weren't intended to be taking out of context sometimes do and when this happens we seek revenge and try to hurt that person also.We may seek to get back at them--thus a grudge is born, and it is always feed with anger, pride and ultimately in the end--- guilt.
The tongue is mightier than the Sword. Kind words can build up a person, make there day and raise esteem. Harsh words can create wrath in an instant.
A friend once said something to me that I took the wrong way. It was a remark just out of conversation that left me feeling inadequate and insignificant; it destroyed my self esteem. I felt the need to retaliate against him and get revenge by saying something to him that I hoped would make him feel 2 feet tall.
It was well over a year before I talked to my friend again. I avoided him and scoffed when he walked by. Holding this grudge this long, every day was a victory for me because of the pain he caused me by his remark--- I would not give in.
One day our paths crossed at the coffee machine and we shook hands and the grudge was over in an instant. I was relieved and the world seemed a little lighter.
Holding a grudge was easy for me until the overwhelmingly guilt, of losing my friend, and missing the little tidbits of humor we shared in our work day.
It was hard for me to remember what he had said to me that day to cause my anger.
However I remember the guilt I felt as I tried to expire him from my life.
Life should be a thrill ride. We should enjoy what we can. It should be lived in capacity with as little animosity as possible. Pride is not a virtue. It is in reality, a deadly sin. Let the grudges in our life be short lived and find some peace knowing that god said it best "Vengeance is mine." If we can only strive to remember that Pride is not hard to swallow--- if you chew it long enough.



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It is reality that we were born to die. The average life span of a man is 76 years. A woman’s is slightly higher. It is with vice free living that we may better our chances to live and even surpass our life span. We all want to live a long life no normal person desires to die at an early age. One way to achieve and increase chances of longevity is, vice-free living.
Some folks live their lives in a day-to-day haphazard manner not worried about tomorrow. They seem to have be unconcerned with the consequences of the vices that might diminish their life span.
They are a lot of vices that can rob us of our health as well as our freedom. We must be aware, and watchful for the wrong
Although no one is promised tomorrow however we can make the odds better by having any vices to distract us in doing what we are born to live out our life doing what is right.
As a former smoker I know how hard it is very to quit. Some say that is easier to get off drugs than nicotine. After smoking for 40 years I did quit,and I did it without any patches are or special programs. I did it ‘Cold Turkey.’ I made up my mind that I wanted to breathe better at night. I wanted to not wake up at night gasping for air. I wanted this vice gone from my life. I was successful in my challenge to stop smoking. It has been 6 years! Although I never really had a problem with alcohol, and only drank beer occasionally, I still felt the need to stop that vice also. The beer drinking stopped shortly after that.
When I was 19, I could not foresee myself as age 58. Now with only four years away from retirement, I can look back in retrospect to when I was 19. It was a time when I was not as wrinkled, or heavy as I am now. It was a time when I was still somewhat naive, and I was not vice free. I was indulging in the pleasure of smoking, drinking, and other frailties that made my life a hodgepodge calamity. At this stage in my life, I was only concerned in with pursuing things that were deemed taboo by society. I was not a bad person per se, just immature and clueless to what I needed to be doing to be headed down the straight and narrow road to clean living.
With guidance from friends and family members, I overcame these demons as I matured and became aware of the aspects of clean living, and the positive effect it made in my life.
Everyone should be concerned with the kind of living that makes our bodies healthier, the kind of living that gives us a better chance to live our lives in happiness in health and good will. Our body needs vice free living to maintain a radiant soul. Even though our soul is not harmed by growing older, it does need assurance that we are doing what we can to live out our lives as healthy as we can possibly can.
It is not by chance or luck that we wake up every morning to live another day. It is because of god’s blessing. I appreciate every day I awake and am allowed to live. I look upon each day as a gift. I want to honor God by staying away from vices that could harm the body and as well as the soul. Vice-free-living, honors god. It is the least we all can do to live an harmonious life.

They might come a time in our lives when we may ask our selves are we really happy. Sometimes we might not think we are truly happy, and we might put up a front to keep a friend or loved one from confronting us about being dismayed, and try to cover up any melancholy feelings. Most of us do a good job with hiding temporally depression I expect. However, despair can eventually lead to problems that affect us and our loved ones. Some depression is medical and should always be dealt with by a health care professional. However, they are times when we are just not feeling up to par and just need a little encouragement to keep our happiness on track.

Everyone feels low at times and has temporary bouts with depression. It is just human nature to feel defeated at times and feel that we are not happy when in reality we have ever reason to be content. This could be the time when we need to count our blessings, and thank the lord for what we do have.

When this happens in my life, I look at the folks that are a lot worse off than me. I count my blessings and find I am more than blessed, probably much more than I deserve. I bet most of those other folks are counting their blessings also and finding that they are blessed as even others are worst off than they are. Counting your blessings is a way to realize how much you are regarded as human. It lets us know where we stand and what we deserve.
Defining our happiness is something we all need to realize for ourselves. Finding what makes us happy may not be what makes others happy. So how do we define the factors that make us happy?

Theoretically the things we all need in life to be happy are-- prosperity, love, and health. Some folks might include Faith which would certainly be a factor, but we either have faith already are we don’t. Faith does make other things that we don’t have a lot easer to accept. Troubles and sorrows will always be bestowed upon us. Sometimes sorrow is a way of life.
But it’s not for us to always be sad. Our trials and tribulations build character and make things worth waiting on when happiness does suddenly appears in our lives. Health and love would certainly be a plus and even love by its self love can bring much joy without the other two factors.

If we won bundles of cash from the Lotto or from some other source, would that make us happy? Some might define this as happy. I suppose paying off bills and suddenly becoming debt free would make a lot of us happy but prosperity will not stand on it’s own. Having wealth is not a determining factor in happiness. Remember you can never buy Happiness, just material things that might give us a false appearance of being happy.

If we knew that we have a clean bill of health from our Doctor, would that make us happy? What If we were to combine all three factors; money, love–and health that would be a utopia for most folks How many of us could handle that much unbridled joy?

So what do we search for to find total happiness? Happiness is a value that we must earn by helping others’ find it. If we have found our life partner, someone that we know loves us could be the ultimate happiness,-- the top of the hill. I could not be any happier than having my wife by my side. Nothing else matters but her. Her happiness is my objective, and having her happy make’s me happy. Having someone close in our life could be our key to felicity, I truly believe it is for me.

Sometimes I feel like I am on a comet traveling through space at a million miles an hour.
It seems that our yesterdays are suddenly--- a year ago. Time flies much to quickly. We suddenly find ourselves on a mission to strive to slow life down and live.
Most young folks think that they will never get old, and are ten feet high and bullet proof. I enjoy looking at the young folks, walking around the mall laughing, jollying with their friends. Little do they realize that they are getting old. I say to myself---enjoy it while you can someday if you live, you will be right where I am a old codger, looking at other young folks frolicking like they are locked in your youth.
When I was a young man I too thought that I was a perpetual kid with the Peter Pan Syndrom. I suppose we all didn’t want to grow up. But we had to age to keep on living and living brings old age. What a concept that is. To live, you have to grow into an old person. Who thought of that one? I always thought that every one should age to 35 and then stop ageing. That was lone before I was even near 35 years old. I guess I was at that time looking ahead at getting older and trying to somehow do something about it, or at least dreaming of a miracle to keep from happening. I soon dismissed this fantasy knowing that soon the world would be full of 35-year-old 'Whipper Snappers' with no old folks to make fun of.
They say old people are wise, and can always give advice and insight to problems arriving from their experiences. I expect that is true to a certain extent however I hope some young person does’t ask me to tell them something profound about something I was suppose to know. I already forgot the stuff I was suppose to know. I am lucky to remember to put on my belt and make sure my bill fold is in my paints or my watch is on my arm. It’s funny that I can tell you who said what to me on a fishing trip 40 years ago and I can't tell you what I had for supper yesterday.
As we live our lives--- if we are scrupulous, we can pretty much stay on course and not wind up on death roll.
I reached this pinnacle of my life by god’s grace. I may not have the vast knowledge that some old folks are said to have, but I am still kicking and above the ground. I am always thankful for every day that I live---another day above the ground , another day to enjoy life’s treasures of sun sets sun rises and full moons.
Growing old is a honor. The sad thing is, in order not to get older, we have to die. So I well take the alternative and grow old--- if I can live that long.

As we travel down life’s highway, we might find that where we are headed is not exactly where we might think we could have been. The proverbial fork in the road sometimes leads us to different destinations than we set out. Sometimes it might be a good thing and sometimes it might turn out to be regretful.
Is it by happenstance that we find our way to a destination? Is it possible that we might have somewhere down the road took the wrong fork? If this were the case it dose not mean that we are heading into oblivion, or that we are doomed. If we learn to read the road signs we might avoid the realization of a wrong road taken and know for sure if we are headed toward our destiny with complete confidence.
Some folks have no destination or guidance, and they bounce around life as a pin ball zigzagging around and going no where until they fall out of society for good. Their fork in the road was taken without hesitation, or remorse. Their choosing the wrong forks, almost seems on purpose and with no direction and search for nothing and find nothing in return. They are unaware that they might have had a chance for a better life.
The average person may have some degree of forethought in what direction they want to go and may strive to make certain they are heading in a true path. A life traveler has to be aware that some of the forks in the road are clearly marked’. ’ Some are not marked at all and leave us to go onward to find the ones that are marked
A funny thing about roads is, they can always lead you back to where you started. Second chances are always there for us, and hopefully we won’t veer too far off the road to get a second chance.
In Robert Frosts classic poems ‘The Road Not Taken’, we can get some ideal of things endured and things we might miss by choosing a wrong fork. We might miss something wonderful and we might miss a catastrophe and we might miss nothing at all.
I shall be telling this with a sigh. Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-I took the one less traveled by, And that made all the difference. --- Robert Frost
Yoga Berra said in his book, "If you find a fork in the road take it” this is a humorist play on this topic and deserves mentioning because even though Yoga was, tongue-in-cheek, referring to an eating utensil I believe that he actually meant to take the right fork in a road if possible. They always are forks in the road and paths to explore. Let us all take the ones that will lead us to peace love and kindness, and blessings well fall into place. Good judgment, is always a plus in maintaining a right direction. Traveling through life is a challenge. We are only here for a short while. Hopefully we can make our journey easer by good judgments and trying hard to choose the right forks in our roads.