Stay Strong & Stay Positive

"Life is Harsh and Ugly, so Don't Reject Me..."
-Nas

For the most part, June has been a disturbingly unattractive and ugly month for me and quite a few of my close friends. First, I have dealt with more financial hardship than normal. Now more than I've had to deal with the situations I'm going through, I've been making an extraordinary attempt to be a "Great Friend" to quite a few in my life.

I realize that as many problems as I think I could have that I must remember, what I am going through is nothing.

*I am not dying
*I am not incarcerated
*I am not homeless
*My children do not hate me
(even if I can't see them all the time/everyday)



Hmmm, I just realized that making that list was harder than making a list of positives. It was actually difficult for me to phrase the negative situations that were not happening to me. I kept wanting to say everything positively. I wanted to say...

*I am Alive
*I am Free
*I have a Place to Rest My Head Every Night
*I Love My Children & My Children Love Me


We must all remember to be thankful for what we have and not what we do not have. We must not confuse tough times and hardship for definite end of the world catastrophe.

I have watched many people in the most recent years across America and the entire world face incredibly discouraging and entire life changing, destructive odds.

Earthquakes, Floods, Tsunamis, Tornadoes and Hurricanes and through all the pushed forward.

We lose our homes and our cars breakdown. We lose jobs or our medical coverage is cut. We even lose family members to death and disease. We also must remember that there are a great number of people in Joplin, Missouri and in the country of Japan who this year have lost everything I just named in the same hour. People who have faced great devastation and had to muster the necessary strength to keep going.

I have been trying to figure out what is it that keeps people going in those outrageous circumstances. Is it mental or spiritual? Is it a biological gene bred and passed through many years of family bloodlines? Could it be social-psychological and/or cultural upbringing that since birth has been installed into every child with-in their society eventually creating great adults? I think it could be all of the above and that many of the those next to me need to figure out how to tap into these powers and begin to prepare ourselves and our children on what the true definition of "Strength" really is...

Stay Strong & Stay Positive People