Life's Short - Duty & Responsibility

September 03. Hey everybody, its almost the end of Friday & going to be the start of another long weekend in my world. I love my jewelry business more than any other job or career I have tried & I am always motivated or calling someone for some spark on a slow day. Things have definitely been slow this past weekend & at the midweek market, but I am hoping to fight back & defy the trend of the past few days open for business. My friday wasn't terrible, in fact it was pretty good. I started the morning off with some time spent with my cousin, getting back home in the mid-day & getting to spend some daylight with my parents since my dad has been home doing projects around the house. I went out to pick up pizzas for us all & to gas up my car for the long weekend then we stayed in & had dinner in for a change. I caught a little powernap after feeding my face & before too long it was time to leave for my meeting. I picked a guy up who needed a ride also, which always helps me in turn by giving me not only a reason to go but a feeling of helpfulness & purpose helping another. It's one of the many ways I have done service in the past when I knew little or nothing more to do. The meeting was good & was primarily about the 8th Tradition, which is basically one of the "glue & screws" that holds the 12 Step fellowship together. It's about remaining unorganzied other than organizing service boards to better help others in need. After the meeting I helped clean up & took the guy I brought back home. On the way my mom text me with some disturbing news that got me thinking.

While I was gone out my mother got a message saying that my Great Aunt Lil, my father's aunt, had passed away today. When I got the message it took me a few minutes to absorb. I had thought about the fact that my father expected this to happen soon & took the opportunity to go see her with my mom earlier this spring. Her passing today reminded me of some very valid points that I would like to write about tonight. The first is that Life is Far Too Short for any of us to take another's presence on this earth for granted. By the passing of time, tragedy, illness, or the will of our Higher Power.. they can be gone in the blink of an eye. What was there yesterday may not be there tomorrow. The second thought was that we must certainly live for Today, One Day At A Time. For the exact previous reason too, we may not have something or someone tomorrow that we have today. These thoughts don't float through our minds as human beings, it is only when we are faced with the loss or absence of something that we revert to our spirituality & realize that we are here conditionally, on loan almost & if we do not cherish what is here now we may regret it later. When the term of that loan is up, anything can dissapear from our lives.. which brings me to my third thought to share. We do not know how long we have until we dissapear from the human world. There are so many that may end up missing us, we have a responsibility with our lives that without spirituality we cannot fulfill.

That responsibility I am talking about is to the world around us & all that matters to us within it. Most importantly is to seek out & to serve our Higher Power, whatever it may be, we should fulfill it's wishes & live our lives as it would have us to the best of our abilities. Selling out or living below the level we could actually perform is something we will face when our selfish human life is discarded. But it goes deeper than that. Are we so selfish that we won't get out of ourselves & realize that after we are gone others may miss us? They may regret not having those moments with us they always wanted. So what is our responsibility, to stay busy or too distracted that when its all over we cause remorse, regret, or grief to others? When they were standing by wishing us in their lives? Our responsibility as both human & spiritual beings is to take that initiative & offer as much of ourselves to those we care about around us. Do we call our family often enough? Our friends? Do we tell people that we love, that we love them or just take them for granted another day. If you believe that life ends with the flesh, than you cannot possibly think that alcoholism & spiritual disease can be cured through belief in a Higher Power & spiritual cleansing through the 12 Steps. That would mean my thoughts could not appeal to you. But if you do believe, then take the time to think too. Think about every little thing that you ever enjoyed that is still intact on this planet & find a way to live it, love it, or experience it one more time. Because life is too short & we are not powerful, we are just along for the ride & supposed to be doing the best job we can as not humans, but Spiritual Beings with both Duty & Responsibility. Good Night.. Good Morning.. <3 Jimmy