"Mara and the Buddha – Embracing our Suffering"

By Thich Nhat Hanh

...If you were very mindful, you would have had the feeling that Buddha and Mara were a couple of friends who need each other—like day and night, like flowers and garbage. This is a very deep teaching of Buddhism, and I trust that the children will understand—very deep. You may compare Buddha with the flowers, very fresh, very beautiful. And you may compare Mara with the garbage. It doesn't smell good. There are a lot of flies who like to come to the garbage. It's not pleasant to touch, to hold in your hand, to smell the garbage.

Yet all flowers become garbage. That is the meaning of impermanence: all flowers have to become garbage. If you practice Buddhist meditation, you find out about very interesting things—like about the garbage. Although garbage stinks, although garbage is not pleasant to hold in your hand, if you know how to take care of the garbage, you will transform it back into flowers. You know gardeners don't throw away garbage. They preserve the garbage and take care of the garbage, and in just a few months the garbage becomes compost. They can use that compost to grow lettuce, tomatoes, and flowers. We have to say that organic gardeners are capable of seeing flowers in garbage, seeing cucumbers in garbage. That is what the Buddha described as the non-dualistic way of looking at things.

If you see things like that, you will understand that the garbage is capable of becoming a flower, and the flower can become garbage. Thanks to the flowers there is garbage, because if you keep flowers for three weeks they become garbage, and thanks to the garbage there will be flowers. You now have an idea of the relationship between Buddha and Mara. Mara is not very pleasant, but if you know how to help Mara, to transform Mara, Mara will become Buddha. If you don't know how to take care of the Buddha, Buddha will become Mara.

You see there are people who, in the beginning, love each other very much. They believe that without each other they cannot survive. Their love is so important. They cling to each other because they think that love between them is the only element that can help them survive. But because they don't know how to preserve the love and take care of their love, they get angry at each other, they misunderstand each other, and later on love is transformed slowly into hatred. There are those who say, "I hate you, I don't want to see you anymore, I wish you would die." Those people in the past had proclaimed that they needed each other, they could not survive without each other, they loved each other, so love transforms into hatred. It's like a kind of flower transformed into garbage.

So what you learn today is very deep. Flowers and garbage are of an organic nature because both flowers and garbage are living realities. Buddha and Mara are also organic, and they need each other. It is thanks to the difficulties, thanks to the temptations, that the Buddha has overcome his suffering and his ignorance and become a fully enlightened being. The day before yesterday, I gave a Dharma talk on suffering, and I said that if you look deeply into the nature of your suffering, you will find a way out of it. So if you want a flower, you have to use the garbage. That is why the people who suffer a lot now should not be discouraged. Suffering is their garbage. If they know how to take good care of their garbage they will be able to make the flower come back to them, the flower of peace, of joy. The Buddha shows us the way to do so.

When I was in Moscow several years ago, we offered a retreat to Muscovites, and a few Christians from Korea held a kind of a retreat very close to ours. Some of them came to our friends and asked why they should follow the Buddha. The reason we should not follow the Buddha, according to them, is that Buddha is a mortal. "Mortal" means someone who has to die. In their mind what we need is someone who will not die. Since the Buddha is someone who has to be born and who has to die, he cannot help us—that is the meaning of the declaration made by those friends.

I think it's a wonderful thing to die, because if you are born and you die, it means you are a living reality, like the flower and the garbage: they are living things. We are for life. Anything that is not born, not dying, not growing, is not alive. To be alive means to be born, to grow, to get old, to die, to be born again, to grow, to get old, to die and to continue like that. How do you expect life to be possible without change? But there is one thing that the children may like to know. There is a difference between "flower" and "flower-ness."

The flower may die, but not the flower-ness. Even if a flower has become garbage, you know you can bring the flower back. If you are a good gardener, if you know how to use compost, seeds, water, you will be able to bring the flower back. This means a flower may die, but flower-ness is something that is there all the time: because flower-ness is not a thing, flower-ness is the nature of a thing. So it is with Buddha and Buddha nature. Buddha nature is called in Sanskrit buddhata. We all have buddhata inside of us, this Buddha nature. If we want, we can make the Buddha be born every moment in our hearts. That is a very wonderful thing. You can make the Buddha be born in your heart every moment, because you have Buddhahood in you, you have the nature of the Buddha in you. Buddha is a living thing: Buddha is born, Buddha grows up, Buddha hides himself away, Buddha dies. But Buddhahood is there in us.

We might think that terms like "Buddha nature" are difficult because we don’t know that this is something very simple, very simple. Children can understand very well. We have flower-ness in us; we have "garbage-ness" in us also. Don’t think that they are two enemies—no. They look like enemies—Ánanda was not very skillful in seeing that—but they can support each other. In Buddhism, there is no fight between good and evil—that is the most wonderful thing in the Buddhist practice! There is no fight between good and evil. Good and evil are both organic matters. If you have understanding and wisdom, you will know how to handle both the flower and the garbage in you, you can make the Buddha be born every moment of your life, and peace and happiness will be possible.

6th of August, 1996, Upper Hamlet.

Source: http://newbuddhist.com/discussion/2001/making-tea-for-mara/p1

:: Ash Greig's 10 Steps to Understanding the True Value of Friendship ::

What is friendship? Is it a relationship that you have with a person that you've known since you were 5? Or someone you met only a few months ago? Must it only be with the same sex, or is it possible for a boy and a girl to be friends? This is something only you would know. It all depends on what friendship means to you.


Telling him that his car is awesome or that her shoes are the nicest you've seen all the time doesn't count in building friendship. It isn't about constant partying and getting drunk with them either. It's about how you aren't afraid to criticize their choice of diet, or holding their hands when they've no one to turn to. Friendship is all about being there for one another come what may, for life. For one to build that, one must first understand the value of it.

So here it is, my 10 Steps to Understanding the True Value of Friendship.



Step 1: Have faith in them. If you want him/her to trust you, you've got to trust him/her too. Open up, and tell him/her what you really feel deep inside - share your life with them. Maybe, just maybe, he/she might be able to get you through it. :)


Step 2: Do not rush into it. Friendship needs time to grow, so let it run its course and blossom at its own pace. Spending hours together 7 days a week isn't going to make you BFFs instantly. :)


Step 3: Show them that you care. So her car broke down in the middle of nowhere and she's panicking. This is the time she needs you the most. If you really care about her, you wouldn't want her to go through it alone and you'd drop everything to go to her rescue. :)


Step 4: Never forget to say "Thank you". It doesn't mean that because you're friends, there isn't a need to appreciate the person. I don't believe in the phrase "No thank yous among friends", because it leads to taking the friendship for granted. :)


Step 5: Allow them to be honest with you. If they're really your friends, they would dare tell you that the miniskirt you're wearing doesn't complement you, or that hairgel makes your head look like a durian gone wrong - because they know that you'll not hate them for telling you the truth. :)


Step 6: Listen, and listen more. Talking about yourself all the time isn't cool at all. Ask about his day at work, or about that new movie she watched yesterday. If you want yourself to be heard, you must also hear. :)


Step 7: Do not be afraid to lend a shoulder to cry on. He may be a 35 year-old man with a career and family, but he feels pain just like any other human being when he finds out his father had passed away. Be there for him, with him. :)



Step 8: Stop being judgemental. So he has screwed around with a few women, or she's got a horrible sense of fashion. Don't make assumptions about them - there might be a reason why they are like that. If you call yourself a true friend, you'd help him/her with the problem, and not snigger or laugh behind his/her back. :)


Step 9: Invest in the friendship. Make time to see each other and have fun in each other's company - teh tarik at a mamak shop, jogging in the park, shopping at the mall, anything! Show them that they're worth the extra effort. :)


Step 10: Don't just rely on facebook for quality time. Writing on each other's walls and commenting on pictures and status updates isn't enough to make up for face-to-face interaction or heart-to-heart talks. A hug can do far more wonders than a few lines on a computer screen. :)

~Ash Greig~
http://www.facebook.com/notes/ashley-%E7%88%B1%E6%80%9D%E4%B8%BD-%D8%A7%D8%B4%D9%84%DB%8C-greig/-ash-greigs-10-steps-to-understanding-the-true-value-of-friendship-/10150110374823555?ref=notif&notif_t=note_tag

::Ash Greig's 10 Steps to True Success::

Imagine this: You’re sitting on a comfy chair in your home, sipping on a cup of hot mocha with your dog by your side. You’ve got a fat bank account, and go for holidays abroad at least twice a year. Your career is going strong, and it’s only a matter of days before your boss hands you over that promotion you’ve been working so hard for.

To the rest of the world, you’re as far as one goes when it comes to success. But do money and a career truly define real success? As important as they are, there are other aspects to living a meaningful life – all which we so easily forget in the madness of this constantly revolving world.

So here it is, my take on what it truly means to be a successful person:-

Step 1: Treat the ones who brought you up with love. Your parents sacrificed so much for you for years. Isn’t it about time you took over the reins? Try to make their remaining years the best in their life. :)

Step 2: Keep a savings account, and DON’T touch it. Even a small amount each month adds up to a huge sum by the end of the year. Make it a habit to always have a little something tucked away for emergencies – you never know when you’d need an umbrella when the rain comes pouring. :)

Step 3: Be thankful for everything in your life. Whether or not you believe in God, you’ve been blessed to have all that you have. Ever thought about those who die of starvation in Ethiopia each day? Or those who are forced to work 18 hours a day for a measly $1 daily? Learn to be grateful, and it will teach you to be humble. :)

Step 4: Find a job that you’re happy with, not something that simply pays well but drains the life out of you. A career only begins and develops with the right attitude and drive. What’s the point of earning so much but you struggle to drag yourself to work every morning? :)

Step 5: Help out at a local charity organization. Old folks home, the orphanage, SPCA – anything. If you’re not into giving monetary funds, donate your time instead. Listen to the 89 year-old uncle who rambles on about his days in the army. Volunteer as a cleaner at the dog pound. Your little acts of kindness will do wonders for so many others, and the joy it brings to see them smile is indescribable. :)

Step 6: Meditate. Having some “me” time alone is vital to keep you going. Put on Jim Brickman and sit yourself down. Block out everything and relax your mind. Do it daily for about 20 minutes and you’ll find yourself more able to deal with life’s craziness. :)

Step 7: Don’t forget your friends. It’s easy to simply say “I’m too busy to meet up.” Do it often enough and you’ll lose them one by one by the time you do make time to see them. The last thing you want is to grow old alone. Family is important, but so are friends. :)

Step 8: Smile more. When the promoter helps you find your favourite shade of eye shadow, smile at her and say “Thank you”. If she’s had a bad day, you’d be the one who made all the difference. It doesn’t cost much, yet leaves a huge impact on the ones around you. :)

Step 9: Stay true to yourself. Don’t compromise your beliefs and core values just because it doesn’t seem to fit the situation. All your friends drink but you don’t because you know it’s hazardous to health. Now you’re thinking of starting just so you can fit in and look cool? In the end you’re the one who is going to bed with that bad taste in your mouth and an even worse feeling in your gut – because you realize that you’ve forgotten who you are in the whirlwind of events around you. :)

Step 10: Be courteous. Respect can never be bought – it’s always earned. For one to respect you, you must first treat one with respect. Never forget to say“Thank you”, “Please” and “I’m sorry”, and you’ll go far in life. Being successful doesn’t mean that you’ve got all the money and power in the world. It’s about how you’ve lived your life with no regrets. :)

~Ashley Greig~

http://www.facebook.com/notes/ashley-ai-si-li-ashly-greig/-ash-greigs-10-steps-to-true-success-/10150095337953555?ref=notif&notif_t=note_tag

When You Are Down

When you are down,
always look for the good in things,
the silver lining of the thunderstorms,
the lights at the end of the tunnel;
for for every step up the staircase you took in the dark,
you are that much nearer to the door,
and the light!

~Casper Voon See Hua (facebook status, 31 Jan 2011)

Thought of the Day

Do you realize that the only time in our lives when we like to get old is when we're kids? If you're less than 10 years old, you're so excited about aging that you think in fractions.

"How old are you?" "I'm four and a half!" You're never thirty-six and a half. You're four and a half, going on five! That's the key.
You get into your teens, now they can't hold you back. You jump to the next number, or even a few ahead.

"How old are you?" "I'm gonna be 16!" You could be 13, but hey, you're gonna be 16! And then the greatest day of your life . . You become 21. Even the words sound like a ceremony . . YOU BECOME 21. YESSSS!!!

But then you turn 30. Oooohh, what happened there? Makes you sound like bad milk! He TURNED; we had to throw him out. There's no fun now, you're Just a sour-dumpling. What's wrong? What's changed.

You BECOME 21, you TURN 30, then you're PUSHING 40. Whoa! Put on the brakes, it's all slipping away. Before you know it, you REACH 50.

And your dreams are gone.
But wait!!! You MAKE it to 60. You didn't think you would.

So you BECOME 21, TURN 30, PUSH 40, REACH 50 and MAKE it to 60.

You've built up so much speed that you HIT 70! After that it's a day-by-day thing; you HIT Wednesday.

You get into your 80's and every day is a complete cycle; you HIT lunch; you TURN 4:30; you REACH bedtime. And it doesn't end there. Into the 90's, you start going backwards; "I Was JUST 92."

Then a strange thing happens. If you make it over 100, you become a little kid again. "I'm 100 and a half!"

May you all make it to a healthy 100 and a half!

AND ALWAYS REMEMBER:
Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.

From Will and Guy's Joke of the Day #267

Meet the real Patch Adams

Dr Patch Adams has clowned around in 70 countries, visiting orphanages and nursing homes to bring cheer to the less fortunate.

CAN you imagine a world where no one knows what war is and have to look up a dictionary for its meaning?

Impossible though it may sound, it is the goal of one Dr Patch Adams who lost his father to the Korean War when he was 16.

So don’t be surprised if you are at one of his inspiring talks and end up hugging total strangers tightly or telling them that you love them. That’s exactly what happened at the Securities Commission in Kuala Lumpur on Friday, for no less than one-and-a-half hours!

Picture of fun: The real Dr Adams doesn’t wear a stuffy doctor’s coat but dresses in psychedelic outfits.

The exercises (as Dr Adams calls them) comprise the first part of his talk titled: ‘What’s Your Love Strategy?’ at The Gathering Of Great Minds — Series 3, a series of talks organised by Live and Inspiremagazine.

Many of us would have known of Patch Adams from the hit movie starring Robin Williams. But there is more to Dr Adams than the Hollywood movie portrayed.

For starters, the real Dr Adams doesn’t wear a stuffy doctor’s coat. Instead, the 65-year-old physician dresses in psychedelic outfits, dons sneakers and sports an unusual fork earring. In his pockets are all kinds of props and gadgets, ranging from red noses to dental braces and even fake drool.

Behind the seeming eccentrics however lies a wealth of compassion and wisdom that comes from Dr Adams’ personal experience and thirst for knowledge. The funny doctor has 35,000 books in his library!

The six-foot Dr Adams, who easily commands attention, has been a clown every day since coming out from a psychiatric hospital at the age of 18. (See separate story.)

“Ninety-nine per cent of people will hug you when you are a clown. That won’t happen if you’re in a grey suit looking like an old fart,” Dr Adams says, amid laughter from a 300-strong audience.

Dr Adams is committed to what he does – being on the go 300 days a year. His two sons – Zag and Lars – join him on his trips around the world to cheer up the sick and less fortunate.

To date, Dr Adams has clowned around in 70 countries, visiting over 2,000 orphanages and 1,000 nursing homes. He even put on his clown’s act for five Trinidadian “death row” prisoners a day before they were executed.

Filled with love: Dr Adams getting the participants to hug each other during the talk.

Dr Adams claims to have stopped many fights with his antics – be it on the streets or bars. And he has held no fewer than 2,000 starving children in his arms.

For a man whose life revolves around cheering up others, Dr Adams is disappointed at how impersonal people have become these days.

Relating his long journey from America to Malaysia that involved three flights, he laments: “No one had eye contact with anyone else. It seemed like second nature.”

It is this kind of indifference that Dr Adams is striving to change. Throughout his interactive session, the larger-than-life Dr Adams reaches out to the audience by sharing funny anecdotes, singing Country and Western songs and reciting several Pablo Neruda poems.

But it is more than just comic relief that he imparts – he drives home a message on the importance of love (and not necessarily the romantic kind).

“I have called up CNN many times as Patch Adams the famous guy to offer a love strategy: about a loving response (to war). Every single time I called up, whoever talked to me said no one would be interested,” he says.

“But I know many thousands of people and no one wants the war.”

He asks the audience if anyone thinks there are more important things in their lives than “loving”. Not a single hand shoots up.

“It’s unanimous. Loving to this audience is the most important thing in life. I’ve lectured about 30 million people and about 10 people have raised their hands. That is mathematically insignificant,” he declares.

But he quickly points out that no one has a philosophy on loving and how to carry it out.

“In my 45 years of asking people, no one has ever jumped right into discussion on how to love themselves, their God, their children, humanity, trees. Maybe CNN was right,” he says.

He points that the average American has 13 years of compulsory education of which five hours a week is devoted to science, history, mathematics and languages.

“But nothing is taught about the most important thing in life. Certainly no one would say mathematics is the most important thing in life.”

Dr Adams is amazed that most of America is depressed and miserable.

“If you have food and friends, it’s already a luxury.”

He also believes that depression is just a pharmaceutical company’s diagnosis.

“Depression is a symptom of loneliness. It is not a disease. Loneliness is the disease,” he says.

Dr Adams is dismayed that nature is being desecrated, that children are exploited as sex slaves and millions are starving to death.

He believes that humans are beautiful by nature but a lot of that beauty has been damaged because of money and power.

“There is no love strategy there, yet loving seems to be the most important thing. That’s why I do the things I do,” he shares, adding that he has been beaten up about 100 times and imprisoned a few times before (on a short-term basis).

For Dr Adams, friends remain the most important thing in his life.

“For me, a friend is my God. I love friends. When I answer my mail, I’m looking for friends.”

Dr Adams, who has yet to switch to the computer and still relies on snail mail, says he is in constant correspondence with 1,600 people and answers every single letter he receives.

He points out that humans have always been communal animals, adding that the nuclear family is an unnatural way of living.

He also assumes that strangers are friends he has not met yet, while friends are a possession.

“I’m addicted to people. If you sit next to me on an airplane, you are in trouble. If you’re in an elevator and that door shuts, I’m sorry,” he quips.

Ultimately, Dr Adams has two simple strategies for happiness – gratitude and love.

“At 18, I dove into the ocean of gratitude and I never found the shore. It has given me a very loving life.”

And the funny man has this wise maxim to share: “Be thankful for your arms and legs; for food and friends. Be thankful that you are alive.”

To find out more about Patch Adams, log on to patchadams.org

By RASHVINJEET S.BEDI
sunday@thestar.com.my

http://thestaronline.com/news/story.asp?file=/2010/11/28/nation/7516986&sec=nation

Facts about Dr Patch Adams

>Dr Adams was born Hunter Doherty Adams in 1945, the second son of a school teacher mum and a US army major dad.

> When Dr Adams’ father died in the Korean war, the family returned home to Virginia and he was thrown into the social chaos centering on racism and war that marked the beginning of the 60s.

A sensitive teenager, he became disillusioned with a world where injustice and power seemed to have more value than love and compassion. Dr Adams didn’t want to live in that world, and after three attempted suicides, he was hospitalised in a locked ward of a mental asylum.

> In the mental hospital, Dr Adams made two decisions: to serve humanity through medicine, and to never have another bad day!

> After graduating from medical school, Dr Adams began the Gesundheit Institute with a group of 20 friends, including three doctors who moved into a six-bedroom home in West Virginia and opened it as a free hospital.

The hospital was open 24 hours a day, seven days a week for all manner of medical problems, from birth to death. It treated 500 to 1,000 patients each month, with five to 50 overnight guests a night. Over its 12-year history, 15,000 patients were treated. Dances, home-made plays, humour, gardening – these were the social glue that held the medical project together.

> While the young medical team in West Virginia saw that it needed to make US healthcare a more humane and fun interaction, it also saw the huge need overseas for the same.

Dr Adams and his friends, all young idealistic doctors, headed where the need was greatest: to be involved in changing the situations of poverty, illness and suffering faced by millions across the globe. This subsequently led to the involvement of many young Americans in programmes to bring aid across the globe.

Source: patchadams.org

http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2010/11/28/nation/7516990&sec=nation

Success: A Lengthy Journey

In today's society many baby boomers are searching for something that is illusive and difficult to obtain. They search long and hard not only to find it, but to feel the satisfaction that finding it may bring. This search takes them on a journey through life that has a profound effect on their relationships with others as well as their overall happiness and well being. What they are searching for is Success.

How Do We Create Our Definition of Success?
The baby boomer generation's definition of success began forming at an early age. As children they watched their fathers and mothers work hard to achieve success through home ownership, a good paying job and the obtainment of material possessions. Some moved to bigger houses and their parents purchased more expensive cars as spendable income increased. At Christmas time they may have found that the presents got more expensive and numerous as well. In receiving all of these things many found that their working parents spent less time with them as children. Now they know that time is what they most cherished.

Some baby boomers grew up in a family where their parents worked hard but never seemed to have anything. The house was small and the car was always old and in the mechanics shop. Material possessions were never abundant. Children raised in this type of situation may have formed their definition of success from other successful people, society and the media. Not having the trappings of success made them more determined to achieve it in their adult life. They were going to be "more successful than their parents." In the final analysis were they?

As a baby boomer I followed my parents' example after high school and attended college hoping it would lead to a good career. Like many I found that it was difficult to land that perfect job after graduation and I became frustrated that success was still out of reach. After a period of job moves searching for that "perfect position" I reached the pinnacle stage of my career. Like my friends I worked to purchase the biggest house, nicer cars, better clothes and other material possessions to validate my success. Each year the debt levels increased that required a higher salary. The additional debt caused me to feel "handcuffed" to my job. In our north Dallas neighborhood there were many of my neighbors that purchased expensive homes but did not have the money for furniture. They created an illusion of success on the outside of their stately two story homes. If success was the accumulation of material things were these people successful? Almost everything they owned of value was actually owned by the credit card companies and the mortgage holder. What price were they really paying for success?

How Do We Evaluate Success?
There comes a time in everyone's life when one starts evaluating his or her success. Part of the evaluation is spent looking at the sacrifices made along the way and what is there to show for all the effort, blood, sweat and tears. In essence what was the price for success in tangible and intangible terms? An example might be the many moves a family had to go through for the father/mother to get the promotions and higher salaries. The impact on children frequently changing schools and making new friends. Stresses caused by increased responsibility with each new position and the effect that stress had on the family's happiness. Once the evaluation is completed many individuals question the value of "success" even if material possessions and the money is abundant. Some realize that the price paid to reach success was too high. They yearn for the happiness, true fulfillment and peace of mind they never had.

Did I Ever Achieve Success?
I am one that followed the course of success established by my parents. As a baby boomer societal influences also had an impact on my definition and striving for success. I climbed the career ladder knowing that when I reached the top I would achieve success and fulfillment. I found out I was wrong. A comment that my supportive and loving wife of 23 years made to me several years ago during my hectic corporate days really made me think about what I was doing. One beautiful evening while walking the dog she said " Fred, you know we were the happiest when we first started out. You didn't make much money. We had that rental house, the old furniture and the old car." Another comment made by my oldest son when he was 16 was "dad when I grow up I don't want to be like you, you don't like your job and you never seem happy." When you receive this kind of input you know something about your path to success isn't quite right. I have also learned that many children of baby boomers are not defining success the same way my generation did.

I Finally Found SuccessI gathered up the courage and gave up the high paying corporate job in north Dallas. We moved to a small Colorado town for a year of college teaching. I remember the reactions I received from family and coworkers. My wife and children were ready for adventure but my mother thought I was going through a mid life crisis. I was jumping off the "success train" established by her generation. Colleagues at work either thought I was crazy or were actually envious of my new life change. One corporate officer said that he wished that he could do something like I did, but he was afraid his wife and children would be upset to give up the big house and all of the possessions. I'm sorry to say that I think he is still searching for success. I quickly found that giving up the corporate politics and business suits was easy. So was the two-hour daily commute to my office in north Dallas. In Colorado I walked across the street to work and wore sport shirts, khaki pants and hiking boots. Currently I am living with my family in a small college town in the North Georgia Mountains. I work at home. My wife is a schoolteacher. I have reached success at 46. I only wish I could have reached it sooner.

My New Perspective on Success
What I now realize is that success does not have to be a lengthy journey. Unfortunately most of us have to learn this by going through life striving for career achievement and paying the price. True success is based on how we view things relating to our life and career. Success does not mean obtaining material possessions or career status. I learned from friends we met in Colorado that some people with little money are successful. We had college teaching friends that did not have a great deal of money but enjoyed simple things like making biscotti, buying a good bottle of wine, listening to jazz at the coffee shop or exploring the mountains. They had more than I ever had when I was using society's definition of success. True success is genuine satisfaction, happiness and contentment with yourself and the world around you. Truly enjoying life, family, friends, work, hobbies and all that life has to offer.

I invite you to find it and enjoy it.

Paty Manterola

From my email today