Family and Friends Are Forever

We all need friends and family and there are no guarantees in life about our relationships. My path in life took me 100s of places including including seventy places in Hawaii over the last twenty years. While I've lost touch with many friends I am blessed to have a wonderful family of four brothers and two sisters and my parents are still alive (Dad is 83 and Mom is 80). We all make our decisions in life and I chose to live a life on the road rather than to stay in one place like my family. Living on the road sometimes leads to crises and the need for a listening ear, favors and sometimes money. Being a disabled veteran, I've been provided with excellent medical care, made friends with other vets, doctors and therapists and "evolved" into a person that my family and friends are impressed with. It's been a long time in development that started with one of my best friends, my oldest sister Emily.

We used to share every night as kids as our room was only divided by a partition. She also helped me to read. She has been very busy in her life also and though I hve only seen her several times in 40 years we have kept in touch. Unlike the rest of my family I've lost touch with all of my childhood friends but you never know what the future brings. We had a magical childhood visiting our grandparents in San Francisco and Laguna Beach frequently. I have been to nearly every beach park in California, most of the major camping site with the Boy Scouts, including Cimmaron, New Mexico and skiing at Mammoth and Big Bear and quite a few farms, racnches and packing housee when I was doing volunteer food distribution for Project Volunteer in Oakland. I have re-established frienship with my Dad's second wife after twenty years and we email frequently about life, loves and loves lost and the world. She is taking good care of my Dad who has minor health problems.

While I first began using computers in the eighties, I didn't start emailing until recently and it is a god-send for sharing without traveling, although I've been back to California a couple of times since moving to Hawaii. My Mom and Dad have been incredibly supportive over the years and both are in good health. I've made many friends in Hawaii and went marlin fishing, net fishing in the ocean and streams (shrimp) and hunted wild boar and goats. I did contruction work, detailed cars and a lot of gardening which I love. Ornamental Edibles has excellent seeds (San Jose, CA). I have had my fair share of crises and always got support somehow when I needed it, even with the court system (the Veterans Administration helped). I've only been using a laptop for less than a year (withl Support Techs) and have signed up for a lot of emails on news child abuse advocacy, criminal justice and prisoner support, as well as music (ananda.org is a good station) and Los Alamos National Laboratories to name a few. My first spiritual awakening was at Ananda Meditation Retreat in northern California and I recently got two wonderful letters from Swami Kriyananda, now in India, who I met nearly forty years ago when he performed a kriya yoga ceremony for us. Therer is a book of stories called Musashi (an advanced samurai who put his sword away) who, in the last story tells one to thank all the people who have helped you on your spiritual path starting including the first. Swami Kriyananda promised us disciples that we would be called to a safe place in the future both spiritually and physically.

Emailing has brought me much closer to the family and I've made friends on facebook, twitter and evolver.net The true meaning of globalization is not getting hooked on Guns, Oil and Drugs but "integrating culture and economies", a Cain and Abel resolution not conspiracy theories and paranoia.
Being a non-career person or world traveler, I've acquired a mountain of experience from being on the road and have had many powerful mentors. People love to get out of their funk, to find meaning in their lives and be strong enough to be an inspiring helper to others. Down and Out In Paris talks about George Orwell's homelessness and grief.

Once we learn to validate ourselves, it's easier to validate others rather than compete with them or be mean. I had one of my most difficult PTSD/sleep related dilemma in 2009 and 2011 is turning into one of my best years, years that now seem to have gone by very quickly, whiie not so at the time. Look at the gaps in our lives, the people we have forgotten to stay in touch with only to find out they are thrilled to be friends again. Courage, investment of time and honesty can make up for it. The state of the world is not all bad. Read Professor Hans Rosling's Global Health (Amazon) and see his 4 minute presentation on YouTube of The Status Of The Poor In The World (the poor have never had it so good). We have a long way to go and we can't solve everyone's problems but we can participate in the solution patiently and happily while we still maintain our other priorities.

I think about how an equal number of women should serve the country in some capacity (combat if they choose), DADT, make more progress with limiting child abuse and violent crime,enaabale pot distribution centers, cracking down on porn and human trafficking (the US is the #1 human trafficking destination in the world), and meditating, Since a livable wage doesn't seem likely, we have to help each other more. Between now and 2050 the senior population will at least double. People are living to be 90 and 100 (my parents are 83 and 80 and perfectly healthy) Staying actively involved with using our minds and helping each other is said to prevent Alzheimers in many cases. We have too many peole in prison turning into monsters. Who get's to live and die when one has a life-threatening disease and money is an issue? Why are hospitals allowed to commit fraud to bleed
money from dying people? As Gates and Clinton sign up people to commit as much of the largest transfer of wealth in history to charity, one wonders why teachers cannot afford their own home and where the money will really go.