Life is very short. Don't waste it on doing meaningless things, activities that neither entertain, educate or enrich you, don't persist in things that are definitely going to cause pain, don't hang out with people who are toxic, violent or negative, don't take on the burdens of the world beyond what you should, don't waste yourself or your years trying to keep pace or peace, don't REDUCE yourself to  a role, a meaningless job, a dead relationship, a persistent problem or a threatening disease holding it all within you for the fear of what others will think or say or how you will manage. You and I are none of these. Be with people who lift you, rather than reduce you, whatever be the circumstances. People, you can call on any time and who will come for you.The answer lies within each one of us. Truly it does, as to what we must do to nourish ourselves and keep ourselves healthy. And, to what we allow, and who we decide is worthy of us.The power to our well-being lies within us.

Be with people who remind you to nourish yourself when you forget. People who fill your cup when you are empty. Be with people who are invested in their own well-being, for they will keep you on course. Be with people who can laugh, and remind you to laugh.

Life is very short. You should spend it laughing with the right people than crying with the wrong ones. You must learn and work with the right people for the right reasons. We are nothing but a bunch of moments thrown together, half which we remember and the rest we make up in our memories. Make the bunch of moments count. Finally, we come alone, we go alone. And, this fact is not a morbid one. It is the only reality we will ever know. The only answer to a riddle for which we do not really even know the question. What will work for a sibling, a partner, a friend or a offspring or parent will not work for us. And, it is okay. If they don't get it, they never will.

Society has neither an active interest in you nor a great memory. It sees snippets of you and your life and decides on the limited time it invests on you whether you are worth its time, whether you qualify as someone worthy of its admiration or its ridicule or indifference. If you wear shiny clothes over your dirty linen, it will certify you as successful. If you proudly clean your linen hiding nothing, it will snigger secretly behind your back because it is still wearing its shiny finery over its dirty clothes pretending to be grand and great.

You matter. Your energies matter. Your kindness matters. Your interest and investment in your well-being matters. Surround yourself with people who are invested in well-being. In truth. In honest introspection. There will be many who will get you in a second, and many who would be there beside you all through your life and have no clue who you really are. Many who are clueless how to guide you to course, because they themselves are lost.

The secret to life is not in meaning. It is not in goals. The only permanent thing we will ever know during the short span between birth and death is our own existence. We are alive as long as we are. We are dead when we are not. Whatever we are, become, choose to be comes from this truth. Everything else is a lie, whose meaning and faces change on which show is playing. If we change our city, the story changes, if we change our home our story changes, if our jobs change, our story changes, if we change our gender the story changes, if we change our relationships, our story changes. What remains is who we choose to be or remain amidst all these possibilities and choices.

Deeply invest in your own energies, control your own responses, own your own power. Be the hero of your own story. Most people do not own their own stories, and are busy watching and rating other people's stories. Be accountable for how you behave, how you love, what you forgive and how you move on and which lessons you will carry as important. Carry only your own monkeys on your back. Only hold your own cross. Be kind to those who are carrying their monkeys. Even for a short while, refuse to carry it for anyone. It is not yours to hold. You will be forced to carry their story and it will forever rob you of yours.

Life is short. Make the most of it. You owe only as much as they give you. Most people think this is transactional. It is not. It is the universal law of energy. Most people think giving is about money or things. Money is easy to give, especially if you have it.  It is everything that money cannot buy that is more expensive. For it is time, energy, life and possibilities. You cannot keep giving unless you have filled your own cup. You cannot keep giving if you are not surrounded by people who also ensure they fill yours when you pour into theirs. You should give only as much as what spills over once your cup is full. You can choose a bigger cup as you grow. Choose people with large cups that are overflowing. Become a person with the largest cup in the room, that is full and overflowing for others to take from, without depleting yours. Do not choose people or situations who take from you, without ensuring they are giving you back. They are grabbers. Do not surround yourself calling it duty, those who do not care enough about you to check if your cup is full or empty.

We need to pity and condemn only those who refuse to be accountable for what they do, the energies they carry, the actions they take, the situations they create, the mess they leave, the weight they make others carry and the way they make you feel. Do not be with people who would shift their weight on you, robbing you off your power so they can keep theirs. They are murderers of your soul, dragging you to their level instead of matching yours. Do not waste your time arguing that they are lessons in life.

Learn your lessons quickly, so you enjoy the rewards of abundance life has, instead of continuously sticking to learning the same chapters again and again.

The only sacredness we can truly, truly own is the moral duty of ensuring our own well-being. Even a mother while carrying life within her can nourish her child only through nourishing herself first. Life begins with self-nourishment.

Take care. Be your own gift.

- SS 1/1/2019