The Daily G.I.F.T. from The GratiDude

Call a Sister or Bro today, Monday Friend Day, thus spoke El GratiDude.

www.grateful4.org

Gratitude

Intention

First

Things

The G.I.F.T. Today

Grateful: for the energy of enjoying life as an opt-in experience daily

Intention-stay present stay present

First-Angie call today, schedule?

Things-Follow up Pasa

Morning Meditation from The GratiDude

“Friends is a word we use every day but most of the time we use it in the wrong way.

Now you can look the word up again and again, but the dictionary doesn’t know the meaning of friend.

And if you ask me, you know I can’t be much help

Because a friend is somebody you judge for yourself

Some are OK and they treat you real cool

Some mistake your kindness for being a fool”

Song “Friends” by Whodini

1984

My criteria or definition for a friend has changed and that if it doesn’t involve a true and real exchange of emotional and intellectual energy, that is sincere and vulnerable then it’s just bullshit.  

If it is an exchange, and if they are interactions that are not vulnerable and honest and 360° in terms of talking about the emotional landscape of life and everything that goes with it, then it’s just bullshit.

If you don’t have some sort of faith in anything bigger than you, and if you don’t invoke that on a daily basis, and then your interactions with me, then you are  just bullshit and bullshitting yourself.

I can remember so distinctly everything about the church pew that I was sitting in the color of the wood and the grain even who I was sitting next to and many of the other people that were at the first mem oriole service for my bro Mark Kafoury when he died 15 years ago in San Carlos.  

Other parts of that experience in that time field just like when my dad took his own life with these huge redacted sections that I blocked out, and I tried to piece back together in moments of healing and stillness.

While sitting on that dark cherry colored wood bench in that church, listening to everybody describe the whole in their soul that they were experiencing as a result of this catastrophic loss of this light being Mark who died way too early, and I recall promising myself that I would always take any action possible and do everything I can to save the lives of my friends whenever possible.  

Furthermore I realized that what this would probably end friendships in many cases but at the end of the day I would rather have them end that way then end the way that Mark’s friendship ended with me not doing anything and sitting here in the church after he died.  I’m not implying that I feel a sense of responsibility along the lines of some of the experiences. I had emotionally with my dad however, I realize that I need to keep my eyes very wide open going forward and confront situations directly with friends and family whenever possible.

The reality back then was that I was drinking a lot so I don’t really know how much help I could’ve been to intervene in other attic situations up until I quit drinking going on six years ago.

Now I have had conversations with some of the members of the Little Rascals and others around their obvious path of self-destruction and offering up different ideas or pieces of advice. However, my status makes me a bit of an outsider and I seem to be suspect most times when I’m trying to help my drunk friends.

I love them so much and I just hate to see them slowly killing themselves however, something about my approach and my ego is getting in the way angles with some of these different friends and hope that I just don’t end up sitting in the church pew again too soon because that shit is literally The worst feeling in the world. 

To be at a friend’s funeral while you’re still alive is one of the worst fucking feelings in the world.  

Conversely, even the simplest conversation or moment with a friend is like unwrapping a gift that you didn’t expect to get.

Yesterday I had an awesome brunch with my boy, Roberto Dinero Abrams and his bride and my friend Sweet Pea in the conversation and laughter was so natural and beautiful and fun that I think back on it today and it still gets me high.

When you are connected to your breath, and in the generous present moment of now, guess what?

THESE are the good old days!

Do you understand what I’m saying?

https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1EuM3QKWJjZB4Tuw/?mibextid=14AR8G

Bros fo sho!

The “ good old days” can only be good if those days are experienced while you are in the moment of now connected to your breath and present.  Otherwise, you wouldn’t have any memories of those days. Your thoughts would’ve been somewhere else and you would’ve missed experiences that would’ve created meaningful memories.

The good old days only happen during NOW.

Doesn’t that make you want more NOW, right now?

I’m not selling you a bill of goods and I’m not trying to convince you to believe in something outside of yourself. I’m asking you to give yourself more of your own life by pulling your head out of your ass and coming back into the generous present moment of now.

We can help you do that as well.

Friends.

How many of us have them?

All of us?

How many of us value them as much as we should?

Very few of us?

So on this million dollar Monday let’s pick up the phone and not send a text and let people hear the timber of your voice and the sweetness of your soul as you call up a friend and just tell him you’re thinking about him and that you love them.

I’ll do it if you do it.

I’ll catch up with you tomorrow and you’re attitude of gratitude

EVERY DAY:

Love

and

Gratitude

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