Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all the others.—Marcus Tullius Cicero

Many of us don’t like working for “the man.” The man is corporate America or any company that’s not your own for that fact. I had lunch with a friend recently who decided to look at his job differently. He doesn’t want to do the work he is doing; he find meaning elsewhere. The reactive response would be, “why doesn’t he go do what he wants to do?” The answer is, it’s not that simple. He’s got commitments and responsibilities; a wife, kids, basic needs and the bills to boot. It’s not just about him.

If you have been pursuing a spiritual journey, you’ll often hear it simplified that if you don’t like the life that you are living just change it. After all, we are here to fulfill our purpose. This notion that we can simply drop our current lives to pursue what we think is our purpose might be true for many, but it’s not for most. Yes, we are to structure our lives in such a way as to find fulfillment from the truest self but it is often not necessary for a radical shift. So I offer this, be where you are.

Lao Tzu, the great philosopher and father of Taoism wrote, “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” The first step is to be where you are–stop running to the unknown, don’t move just to move. The second step is to know where you are. Really, look at your life and see the reasons for that life. The third step is to begin where you are. Drop everything and run like Usain Bolt if you are in danger–get some help! If you are not in danger, then be deliberate with your choices. Chart a course to get into the life you have or find your way into the one you want.

But for now, “you gotsta love the man!” The man pays the bills–food, shelter, clothing and a few luxuries too. So today be grateful for the man; be grateful for your life. Oh by the way, the man pays a lot more than your uncle.

Try this: make a list of 10 things you are grateful for. Then make a list of 5 challenging experiences that you are also grateful for. Hopefully you see that eventually, it’s all good.

Warriors of the light are not perfect. Their beauty lies in accepting this fact and still desiring to grow and to learn. —Paulo Coehlo from The Warrior of the Light

“When the student is ready, the teacher appears.” is an axiom found in just about every spiritual tradition, all claiming it as their own. This truth is a gateway to our potential and a promise by the universe that we are all guided as we travel this journey called life.

We have experienced this: our teachers seemingly appear out of nowhere to provide answers and lessons when we are mentally, physically, and emotionally in a place to recognize these lessons. A verse in a song, a blog that we read, a line in a movie, or a voice in your head are all sublime teachings from unsuspected teachers.

Every experience has a lesson for the living. Living is learning. It is only a body without life that does no learning. Life is a classroom filled with nontraditional, informal teachers. Learning takes place in every moment-life happens in this moment. When we take ourselves out of this moment to wander into our past and future, we miss the teachers in the here and now. When we lock into ego positions of right, wrong, and how things should be, we miss the teachers in our midst.

How often do we tell the beggar to go get a job and the talkative child to be quiet? How often do we view the less educated as limited? How often do we use our positions of authority to silence those for whom we have stewardship. How often do we use expertise in one area to fake knowledge in another area. These ways of being affect our readiness for our teachers.

The beggar can teach us humility, the talkative child teaches us patience and reminds us of the delight in our world. The seemingly ignorant can show another way. This life is a treasure hunt for wisdom and wisdom is tucked away in the most unexpected and unusual experiences.

When the student is ready, the teacher appears. Are you ready? Your teachers are waiting.

He who experiences the unity of life sees his own Self in all beings, and all beings in his own Self, and looks on everything with an impartial eye. —Buddha

Yesterday we had the privilege of lifetime, to be conscious of a pivotal point in the history of the world. Yes, it was that big!

On the surface we witnessed a man of African and American descendants assume the most powerful political position in the world. We witnessed the spirit of a nation rise over the circumstances of it fears. Yes, yesterday was that big. Congratulations world we are awake! At least, awaken to the reality that form and function are separate; that is, it’s unimaginative to think that because of the package, the content is no good. We lifted these anchors of prejudice and hope reigns.

So now here we are, the party is over, the clean up crew has served us well. It is time build; to answer a call placed by the man we have manifested to represent us to each other. You see, Barack didn’t work his magic. There was no charismatic voo doo (or obeah if you are Jamaican). In this day, at this time in our evolution, our collective consciousness created the way for Barack to emerge as the spokesperson for love, unity, and service with the latter being the manifestation of the former.

The call that Barack bellowed was to go and serve each other; that we are our brothers and sisters keepers—a knowing that struck me in the most profound way upon completion of my book Reminder to Self. I realized that all we have ever done, all we will ever do is serve each other. The teacher serves the student and the student serves the teacher; the parent serves the child and the child serves the parent; the President serves the people and the people, the President. Even disservice is service. We become resilient and develop survival mechanisms in the face of disservice. Eventually we leverage disservice for service (the disservice of slavery has now produced a President, arguably the leader of the free world.)

If what we have done has always been service, then a call to service is a call to consciousness. A call to mindfulness where we do what we have done with a new understanding. An understanding that the outcome of how we serve will affect our brothers and sisters. An understanding that we manifest joy or pain. That is, upon the many faces of the people we serve, we place a smiles or frowns; tears of joy or tears of pain. And we know that joy is better.

The call to service doesn’t require radical shifts necessarily, it simply requires responsibility. It requires that we release goodness of thoughts and deeds. And it requires that we begin right where we are. The journey of a thousand miles begin with one step but let me offer three. The first step is to be where you are. Magnify yourself if where you are is where you want to be. The second step is to know where you are. Get in to where you are or get out of it. Finally, the third step in your thousand mile journey is to begin where you are, it’s the only place from whence to start. If we consciously serve with our gift, talent and abilities, then we have answered the call of our new President.

“When Nature has work to be done, she creates a genius to do it.”

— Leonardo da Vinci: was an 16th century artistic, scientific & engineering genius.

My wife is pregnant. This will be our fourth, so far, all girls. We decided not to find out what we are having. We figured it’s a 100% chance that we’ll get what we want, a boy, or a girl. But that wasn’t the reason I didn’t want to find out.

I am the only male in a family of five, soon to be six. I wanted support–testosterone support! That was my reason, someone to relate to, someone to rough-house with (even though I can’t keep up with my girls), someone to keep my company in the doghouse. Really though, deep down what I wanted was a boy to carry on my name. My reason for not wanting to find out was have the excitement of childbirth mask my disappointment if it is another girl.

I realized this morning how the ego works its way into the mind of reasonable people making meaningless thoughts important. There have been countless atrocities perpetrated against mothers and newborn girls by men like me in cultures across the globe. We want boys to carry on our name, to fulfill the dreams we’ve had but couldn’t accomplish, and with whom to bequeath our legacy. We want boys for our posterity.

In this desire we have been lost and misguided. It is an egotistical display of our inadequacies disguised as noble in our world of materiality. We will never have enough boys to make our lives any more significant than they already are. In the physical world where we keep score, we think we get more points for “stuff” including having boys to carry on our names. We don’t! All of us, boy or girl, equally account for one piece of this puzzle called life. When this life is over we’re done, here. With or without children we will have contributed to something much bigger than the scores we keep, just for mere being. The purpose for our lives is serve to each others. It’s impossible to live without serving.

Boy or girl, it’s not about me. The honor has been bestowed upon us as stewards of our children; to show them what we have seen on our journey, walking with them as far as we can go, then letting them go off into the sunset of their own lives, taking their place in the puzzle called life.

The ego wants to be important and in cultures across the world including here in America, some of us want boys over girls. But when we allow God into our lives, we awake from our ego-coma to find out that the point value is the same–zero! God doesn’t keep score. So boy or girl, bring it on! I’ll let you know.

So that you can be courageous with your choices and let your connection to God manifest it miracles

My grandmother used to say that everything happens in the fullness of time. You get to make the wish, but the Universe determines when it comes to pass, and exactly what it looks like. Rest assured though, it will come in some way, shape, or form. We tend to be consumed in the outcomes of things, which invariably removes us from our present moment and our responsibility for the experiences therein.

One of our pure joys and blessings is our ability to create. In our creating we find our challenges, and in our challenges we find life. We gain courage, understanding, knowledge, and wisdom. We see possibilities never before seen and meet a self we never knew existed. Our responsibility is to do everything we can, and then leave the rest to God and watch the miracles unfold.