All packed

The past few months I’ve taken my fair share of trip or participated in events that require me to spend a night or more away from home. Each time I don't properly pack and without fail I leave something behind. In order to help correct my behavior, I do not allow myself to simply purchase the forgotten item, I force myself to go without and in doing so hope I will remember and correct this behavior.

This highlights how I view myself in many ways. I know I have everything I need in this life; sometimes I just leave some things behind and am forced to go without. In going through this process I learn. In this life we aren’t suppose to have it all, we’re suppose to leave something out, and in doing so we learn and grow.

A man’s ethical behavior should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties; no religious basis is necessary. Man would in deeded be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death.
Not everything that counts can be counted and not everything that can be counted counts.
–Albert Einstein

Friendship

I’ve come to realize in a very real way recently that nothing is unrelated. No single person is ever really alone. Everyone’s actions no matter how insignificant can and does affect something else. Things were designed this way, the sooner we can give in to this, the better off we will all be.

The challenges we are given are suppose to be hard, so hard that we cannot possibly go it alone. The struggles and moments of weakness are really just opportunities of friendship - to build and forge strong relationships with others. Even when we think are, we are never alone.

"When we honestly ask ourselves which person in our lives means the most us, we often find that it is those who, instead of giving much advice, solutions, or cures, have chosen rather to share our pain and touch our wounds with a gentle and tender hand. The friend who can be silent with us in a moment of despair or confusion, who can stay with us in an hour of grief and bereavement, who can tolerate not knowing, not curing, not healing and face with us the reality of our powerlessness, that is a friend who cares." -Henri Nouwen