So, time passes and here we are again. Time to ramble on...I have been perplexed by some of the attitudes that I come in contact with via my travels. You know the ones I am talking about, people who are always positive about what they are going through, experiencing - LIFE. I wonder, as many of you do, how can these folks do it? How can they always see the glass as half full instead of half empty? On the other hand there are those people I meet who loathe life and all that it offers. They loathe their jobs, communities they live in, or the relationships they find themselves in. Are they wolves of the steppes like Harry Haller that Hesse wrote of in Steppenwolf? Dismayed by life it self. Seeming to only find contentment in despair. People who can never seem to be satisfied or at peace.

Victor Frankl in his Man's Search For Meaning, wanted to understand how his fellow concentration camp prisoners, so many of them, were able to maintain "hope." Hope during such horrific conditions. How could an individual subjected to such conditions maintain an appreciation for the beauty in a sunrise, or a snippet of music hummed or heard. One day during a march to a labor work site, Viktor watched as a fellow prisoner wandered away from the column and walked toward the East. Viktor ran after him, trying to convince him to return to the line. The prisoner didn't respond and Viktor tried again, getting a "wait" from him. Viktor pleaded with him to return to the line, and once again the prisoner said WAIT. "Look at that," replied the fellow. Viktor's eyes followed the prisoner's gaze and noticed he was watching the sunrise. With that, the prisoner expounded on the beauty in a sunrise, the splendor of the sight. At that moment, Viktor realized what had sustained this man, and all the others he had been observing. He realized that no matter what happens to a person, no matter what how rotten a situation is, no one, NO ONE could affect what one feels inside. That that power only belongs to each of us. We each have the FREEDOM, the CHOICE, to view the glass as half full or empty, the community as a miserable dead end of a place, or that a relationship is either good for us or not.

So, what will it be? Are you willing to make the best of the situation? Are you willing to not only lift yourself up and adopt a "BE HERE NOW" attitude, but to also support those around you who want the same? Let's face it, who the HECK wants to be around someone all the time who is a BUMMER!! I declare THE MILL an attitude free zone! Let's not bury our heads in the sand, but at least move forward in a positive manner and FEEL damn good we are ALIVE! ENJOY! Unless you believe in reincarnation, you only go around once. why be miserable! YOU ARE A PRODUCT OF YOUR CHOICES, NOT YOUR CIRCUMSTANCES!
But, I ramble...............PEACE

Silently a flower blooms In silence it falls away; Yet here now, at this moment, at this place, the whole of the flower, the whole of the world is blooming. This is the talk of the flower, the truth of the blossom; The glory of eternal life is fully shining here A Flower Does Not Talk...Zenkei Shibayama

So, whaddaya think? Comments, questions, rebuttals... this is the place to share it or air it. Write the Madman!