Today I was running a few laps at my club and thinking about what ideas I’d like to write about. Then my eyes started looking at the trees, plants, and flowers that surround the track, I realized that I was the only one there in the middle of a Monday afternoon the track was all mine. Remebering about a South Jersey company that removes trees, i started to focus on that direction.
When I start out running I concentrate on my breathing and focus on the messages that my legs are sending me, especially the knees, one of which was injured skiing years ago. When everything seems under control I change my thoughts back on the beauty of Brazil surrounding me, and how fortunate I am to be enjoying some recreation while most everyone else is working. Then I realize what I wanted to write about; personal energy.
Everyday I think about people who are less fortunate and often I try to remind myself that each and everyone of us was born with the innate ability to be happy. It’s the ideas we get in our minds and the notions we develop about the world that slowly usurps the joy from our lives. Sure many people are born with horrible circumstances and have a far less likely chance of becoming happy but then from that segment of the population come the most amazing spirits, rising up like the Phoenix from the ashes. In every discipline, vocation and profession there are examples. In Brazil even the President is a perfect case study of a man born into poverty, who overcame enormous disadvantages to become the most powerful man on the continent of South America.
The theme that I wanted to touch upon though, was that of happiness, and as another example I’ll tell you about a cart-man in my neighborhood. I get a laugh sometimes when I see him because he often wears a baseball hat that I gave him, which I bought in New Orleans when I was on my Honeymoon. He’s a proud, hard-working man with a family of 3 boys a wife and a small dog, occasionally we see them all together but usually they split into teams to work more area. Whenever I’m going to get rid of anything that I think may have some value we put it aside for this cart-man to collect the next time he comes to our house. He’s always cordial and grateful.
Another thing we notice about the cart-man, my wife and I, is that he takes great care as to how he arranges his old wooden cart with small-tires and car axial. This noble man must have pulled that cart, like a rickshaw, laden with recyclable stuff (mostly card board and plastic), thousands of miles in his life. Maybe he followed along behind his father’s cart years ago, as his son’s do now but the thing that’s most remarkable is his dignity, which he earns from his independence, hard constant effort, and tenacity to make it through the day, with a smile for the people he meets along the way.
Where do people like the cart-man get the personal energy to carry-on, day after day? Is he less happy than the President of Brazil? Is he more well-off than me?
I think that energy comes from a universal power source that any of us can connect to. Perhaps we deny ourselves access to the universal power supply by directing our minds towards thinking the wrong thoughts. Maybe we exhaust our own energy by over-thinking things too much, or thinking bad or wrong ideas? Perhaps it’s possible that the fastest way to lose personal energy is to feel self-pity, or think negative thoughts.
I know that when I get tired and want to quit before it’s time, that I shouldn’t. To inspire myself all I have to do is stop and think correctly, about what is good in my life and this world, remember the billions of people who have much more difficult occupations and situations, then like the cart-man just get on with the job. All of a sudden the time seems to have gone by and the work has been completed. The energy came from somewhere outside of myself, since I didn’t have it before, so it must have come from a universal energy supply to which I’m becoming more able to connect to because I think it to be true.
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