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"From My Perspective"Death will come for all of us. From the moment of our birth, we are dying. For some it may be but a ragged breath or two while others are allotted a century or more. With our meager knowledge and understanding of the world around us we will never know when or how death will come for us but we know it is always coming, lurking around each corner. The shadow to each sunny day. With the outcome inevitable and the war lost before it even begins what are we to do? Shall we cower and quit? Hide away from the world and life itself. Accept isolation and caution for the possibility of time. Perhaps we should revel in the present? Acknowledge the uncertainty of the future and live for each hedonistic moment. Maybe somewhere in-between. I don’t know. We each must choose how we are going to view life and the world around us. We were given free choice by our creator and that begins with our first breath. From the moment of birth we start to develop an attitude for life. Will we cower in the shadows growing pale and bitter or shall we dance in the light? We have all known, or perhaps even been, that boy or girl that was never fully happy, the child that always yearned for what it didn’t have. The child that while never willing to share their own toys, was always willing to take someone else’s. The spoiled child that grows into a rebellious teen, a teen that doesn’t understand or accept the world, a teen that lashes out when the world doesn’t revolve around them, a teen that grows into a disillusioned and lost adult. Can’t we break the circle? Don’t we have a choice? Just as I walked in darkness for 40 years groping blindly in the night, I look around me and see so many people lost and searching, but for what they do not know. We strain and struggle always looking to the other side of the fence hoping the grass will be greener. We seek distractions in drugs, alcohol, sex, danger, and violence always wishing to fill a void that we feel but can’t identify. Is it possible to solve a problem that you do not even understand or admit exists? Many will go through life never truly happy nor understanding why they cannot find peace. Beset by the pain and obstacles of the society in which we live, we seek solace in the world not knowing that true peace will never come from the world around us. Is success in life the benchmark for our happiness or is our happiness the benchmark for our success? I have been as poor as it is possible to be, and I have been financially comfortable. I have lived in the heart of the inner-city slums and in the open spaces of the country. I have enjoyed physical successes and I have had physical pain for most of my life. One thing I have learned is that while life’s obstacles do not go away when you have a good attitude, you can at least not add to them. We will have much more success by changing our perspective then we will by changing our environment. It was when I stopped seeking the accolades of the society, and sought a relationship with God, that I found peace within myself, the peace of God which overcomes the world. |