Day # 8 - Nobody does it alone

In ten days my chairmanship of the Dania Beach Chamber of commerce will end. It's been two fantastic years that have taken forever and have passed in the blink of an eye. Yesterday I sat down to write my comments for this week's newsletter, in which I will talk about the accomplishments of the last two years. While those accomplishments are irrelevant to this conversation, thinking about them helped me realize something that I always knew but never thought about: Nobody does it alone.

I don't care who you are, you cannot do it alone. You need people in your corner guiding you, helping you. You need them to tell you when you are right and, more importantly, when you are wrong. There are no friends in the good times, just guests at the party. Friends are there to pick you up when you fall. Friends remind you of your abilities, and they remind you of your shortcomings. Anyone can praise. It's easy and it's comfortable. True friends remind us of our humanity; they criticize with love.

Anyone can come to your housewarming party, but it was your friend who helped lug your piano up the stairs. (I'm the guy with the piano.)

Today is the ninth day of this project and already I feel changes in my life. I am learning and this is becoming my new addiction. I am not as interested in the misery in the world. I know longer feel the urge to read about human suffering and get worked up about it. I am rediscovering what matters.

Yesterday, an old friend e-mailed me about what I have been writing. It moved me in a way nothing has moved me in a while. She reminded me of what I could be like and I realized that we sometimes lose the better parts of ourselves along the way. They are not lost forever, we can always go back and pick them up. And that's what I intend to do.

She told me about the things she learned from me. I am flattered. She is one of the most intelligent people I know, she is highly intelligent and possesses the kind of intellectual curiosity that ensures she will never stop learning and bettering herself. When someone like that tells you they learned something from you, it is a compliment. She's also a cutie, but that's irrelevant.

Her note reminded me about the great times we shared and the positive feelings her presence always gave me. I wondered why we drifted apart. We know that good friends are hard to find but we seem to forget they are easy to lose. The bible tells us to tether them to our hearts with hoops of steel. I intend to do just that. I will not let the people I love get away anymore.

I went to the library to read for a while. I had two hours and I spent it reading a small book on positive thinking. I took four pages of notes, which I will eventually transcribe and parts of which I will incorporate into my own philosophy. I listened to a summary of a book called the Master Key System. The book was written in 1912 and it helps me realize that the truth has always been there. I was just too busy to see it.

Today's Lessons:

-Freedom is everything. Forget security. When given the choice, choose freedom.
-Injustice, in all its forms, is to be fought.
-Good friends are hard to find, but easy to lose.
-Nobody does it alone.

Thanks for reading. More tomorrow.


Adolfo

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