Three Prescriptions To Happiness

Prescription Number Three

#3 Love Unconditionally Even If You Don't Get What you Want

Can you love your enemy? OK, probably not. Can you love a person who does not like you? Maybe. Can you love a person who disagrees with you? Probably. Can you love a person who likes you and agrees with you all the time? Yes.

Think of a world where everyone loves everybody. I know it won't happen in our lifetime. However, just think about it. There would not be any enemies. There would be people that don't like you, but they would acknowledge, respect and accept you. There would be people that disagree with you, but still love you. That's the world I choose to live in.

Sooo, how do we create a world like that? It could start with you. If you wait for everybody else to start it, it will never happen. Can one person change the world? I believe it could happen. It's called "pay it forward."

How is it making me happier to hate the Taliban. I know most of them hate me (because I'm an American), but sitting at my PC and having hatred in my heart for all of them, will not make me happier.

My first and second wives put me near bankruptcy and I was mad at them for that. But, as I began to listen to the words of Ken Keyes, I started to realize that anger was not serving me. What if I could focus on the good things that happened in our marriages? What if I could love them just the way they are? Would my life get better or worse? Once I let the anger go, my life got better.

I have a true friend who disagrees with me and sometimes instigates a fight between my wife and me. Kenny (believe it or not he has the same name) and I fight, but we love each other. We laugh together all the time. Once the fight is over, we do high fives and know that our friendship will last forever. Kenny believes in prescription number three.

I would like to think my positive energy and my lack of anger (even at people I don't like or have done me harm) has rubbed off on others. I would like to think the people I've touched understand that loving instead of hating makes them happier.

The outside world will not give you what you want all the time. Hating or angry at "them" never served me. I put myself in first position. I love myself just a little bit more than anybody or any thing else in this world. I try my best to run my life in a way the makes me happy. Believing and conducting my life as Keyes suggests in prescription number three, makes me happy.

Try it!! Take the anger and hatred out of your life. Love your enemy or people that don't act the way you want. You will feel better, your life will get better, and you will be happier. Do it for you not for me.

If you try it, maybe someone else will try it. Then someone else will try it. Then someone else will try it. If enough people try it, we are on the way to a world where everyone loves everyone else. That's the world I want my children and their children to live in, but it has to start with YOU!!!