--- In [email protected], "shempmcgurk" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > In my adult life, I have been self-employed for most of that time (I > guess about 25 years or so since I finished all my schooling). For > at least 10 of those years I have officially been under the poverty > line (a very common occurance for people in business and the self- > employed who DO figure in the statistics because of this). > > During those years, I never missed a sushi meal if I wanted one.
Shemp, I love ya guy, and strangely I actually *identify* with what you say. I have also been the most fortunate of froods in this life. The very fact that I'm still ALIVE is a wonder, and I have managed not only to survive but to do so in some semblance of style for most of the lifetime. However, I might suggest that one of the reasons that you and I can pull this shit off is a certain level of personal power left over from previous incarnations in which we spent a lot of time performing selfless service. It's easy, when "things come easy for you," that it's the same for everyone around you. It's not. Six years in New Mexico -- a beautiful place but the second poorest state in the US, where over half the population has neither health insurance nor auto insurance because they can't afford it -- cured me of that naive belief. Just as something to ponder, if you are ever given to pondering, consider where the *source* of this miraculous string of luck that was your life *came* from: My bet is that it didn't come from incarnations in which you put your attention on trying to make more money and do more things to benefit yourself. It came from those incarnations in which you put a lot of attention on helping others. The happiest people I've ever met were the ones who spent the least amount of time thinking about themselves, and doing things for themselves. Most of their attention was on what they could do for others. These people smiled a lot. Those who focused on doing things for themselves didn't. Clinched it for me... To subscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!' Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
