Challenges In Life

I was in a meeting the other day and a friend of mine and several other people, we were discussing life in general and challenges in life and you know, people talk about getting over the hump of whether that’s a financial hump or whether it’s a relationship hump or working with your children or whatever it might be and The one gentleman named Mike said, you know, you’re not over the hump until the humps over you now it took me a couple of minutes before I figured out what he was talking about because For many years now. I’ve thought you know at the end of my time here on this planet, that I wanted my remains to be cremated as opposed to put into a wooden box of some kind and into a concrete vault of some kind. It’s stuck in the ground somewhere with a headstone that no one will care about or come to to look at. And because number one, my children are all over the country. Number two, they’ll feel obligated or guilty if they don’t come and show up. In reality, they don’t need to because I’m not there anymore anyway. However, that hump of dirt that they put on a grave because obviously when they dig a hole in the ground and then they replace or put in that hole of concrete vault in a box, that takes up a lot of space. So all of the dirt won’t fit back in the hole. If you’ve ever dug a hole in a beach or in your backyard, you know what I’m talking about. Try to put all that dirt back into the hole in the ground. There’s always some left over. So I thought about that. What it really means is that you have an entire life, as long as you’re breathing to deal with the challenges and to find a way to navigate your way through, find a way to accept your life as it is. You know, I don’t know that any of us when we’re young or let me rephrase that. Most people when they’re young have no idea what they’re going to end up doing for a living when they get older, when they become an adult. And they don’t know what their adult years are gonna be like. Are they gonna get married? Are they going to have children? Are the children all going to live past them? What kind of a job? Will they have money? Will they not have a lot of money? All of those variables. Will they be happy in a marriage? Will they have many marriages? You know, I’ve been in sales most of my adult life, working career, along with a variety of other things that I do for fun, but I’ve been involved in sales to make a living. When I was a youngster, I didn’t think I was going to be in sales. Frankly, I never really thought about what I was going to do when I grew up. There was a period when I was in college back at Syracuse University when, you know, my major was psych and special ed that I thought was going to change the world. And that was back in 1970 to 72, the two years I spent at Syracuse and we’re all going to change the world then. You had folks who either wanted to go into law. They wanted to go into journalism or They were going to change the world. We were what they called hippies Which just meant that we grew beards and we had long hair. But we really bought into the idea that love could change the world. That if we were kind to each other And kind to people of the world the world would become a better place. I mean, we had lived through the assassination of President Kennedy and the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy and the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago that was very violent, the political convention in Chicago. And it was a turbulent time. And so we thought that if we practiced love and forgiveness and we didn’t fight a war 10,000 miles away that you know the world would turn out good. Well, it didn’t happen that way. The world is now just about as crazy as it’s ever been I think. However, the challenges that we face in life are manageable; they’re manageable I believe if we have a belief in a power greater than ourselves, outside of ourselves, that loves and cares for us. Now I was raised Roman Catholic, but I don’t practice the Catholic faith anymore. I am very spiritual. I have a relationship with a higher power that I call God, and I keep in constant communication with that power and believe that a God of my understanding loves and cares for me and wants me to be happy, joyous and free. Now, if that sounds similar to some 12-step recovery programs you’re familiar with, it’s because it should, because it comes from 12-step recovery programs. That philosophy, I think, may be similar to some other religions maybe that have evolved into that spiritual consciousness. The point is that life will always have challenges. The question is, how do we deal with those? So we want to try to live in what I’d like to call the solution rather than in the problem. And I’ve been having some physical problems recently. I’ve got what they call an IT band irritation, and I got a shot in my hip that was supposed to fix it, but it really didn’t. And so I still have pain on a pretty much daily basis. Big deal. You know, when I think about that as a hump I have to get over, there are many friends of mine and millions of people in the world who are dealing with physical issues, medical issues that are much more serious than that. And issues just for basic survival. You know, do they have enough food to eat? Do they have any food to eat? You know, are they sleeping out in the cold or do they have a roof over their head? Do they have medical care or do they not have the ability to get any medical care? Can they care for their children? Can they care for their aging parents? Can they care for themselves? I mean, those are all, if you will, humps that people have to get over before the hump is over us. And I want to bring up that thought today because it’s been heavy on my mind and after listening to that conversation or participating in it that I had yesterday and hearing a friend of mine say, you’re not over the hump until the hump is over you, which I thought was kind of humorous, but very true. If you can get some positive message out of that, if you can find some spiritual comfort in that and the realization that life is not fair or unfair, life just is, life happens, it happens to all of us. The question is how do we deal with it? And I believe that if you find a spiritual connection, a connection that is greater than you, that you can communicate with on whatever basis, whether that’s out in nature, whether that’s in a traditional church service, whether that’s just on your knees in your own home, and have an open conversation and find some solace in that. That will help all of us deal with the humps that are in front of us before the hump is over us. So I appreciate you listening. Please tune in for more; and again you can reach me David at DavidA Gwilt.com.

Thanks a lot.