Silence4Now

Truth is sometimes very ugly. This video is graphic, but it brings awareness to an issue which we cannot ignore.....kudos to Madison Park for helping to get the issue out in the open.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OzEj9LG6y4g

If you are not interested in becoming a vegetarian, I encourage you to support local, family run farms that practice humane farming.

I’m one of those people who believes that everything happens for a reason. I’m still searching for the purpose of the 9/11 tragedy. The way I work through things is to write about them. So I found the 2,996 project where I signed up to write a tribute to one of the victims. One of thousands… Christopher James Pickford, 32, firefighter who lived in Queens and was in Engine Company 201 in Brooklyn's Battalion 40. He was one of four men from his company who entered Tower Two to search for survivors, 10 minutes before the tower collapsed. Only he wasn't a victim. Chris was a real hero.

At 6’5”, Pickford was described by a friend as "a gentle giant, with a wonderful sense of humor". He was a multi-talented guy who fought fires during the day and played rock music at night. He was the lead guitarist with his band, the Ten Degree Lean. He named an earlier band Riboflavin and the Vitamin D’s if that's any indication of Chris’ sense of humor.

I read so many great funny, adventurous stories involving Chris. It’s difficult to summarize it all here. But I feel like I know him. He was a musician, a songwriter, poet and an armchair philosopher. But to his friends Chris was a quick study of people and life. He had a devoted relationship with his family, and a tight knit group of friends whom he inspired and entertained. He had nicknames for his closest friends, like Fraidy Chicken and Spam. And they called him “Super Chris” or ‘Supe’, for the ringleader who knew how to bring out the best in everyone.

From all I read about Christopher, I doubt that he went down feeling sorry for himself. All of his friends seem to agree on one thing. He understood life and how to face its obstacles. Chris used to love to leave crazy messages on his friend’s answering machines. He would say something like, "let's go upstate for the weekend...you could get hit by a bus tomorrow...we need to rehearse today, you could get hit by a bus tomorrow.”

Thanks to Chris' family and friends for sharing their memories of him so that others could know him. The events of 9/11 help me remember that there is nothing in this world that is certain but change. And stories like Chris' give our lives meaning and purpose.

Silence.... To awake and be fully aware of our spirit.

The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude to me is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, then failures, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness, or skill. It will make or break a company.....a church.... a home. The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrance for that day. We cannot change our past...we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the string we have, and that is our attitude....I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it. And so it is with you.....we are in charge of our attitudes.

I wish I had said this first...alas it was Charles Swindoll. One of my all time favorite spiritual motivators.

My journey into awareness started in Pax-hell - purgatory for Paxil users. In May 2004, I learned the most horrible lesson of my life: never quit an SSRI cold turkey. Better yet, if you haven't taken antidepressants/anti-anxiety or SSRI's then don't. I have God and paxilprogress.org to thank for my recovery. Some day I hope to write about my journey, until then maybe a glimpse into the silence that led me to become awake.