It takes all kinds...

Since becoming enlightened I have found a new level of appreciation and patience for my fellow man. However whenever I witness something happening to someone that upsets their life in such a way that it looks completely hopeless it will ever be turned around, I can't help but take on some of the emotional burden.

Through many difficult life lessons and being fortunate enough to have an open mind to learn from them, I have come to realize that the happiness we have in life is not due to success or from external forces, but just the opposite. If we go through life thinking that we are victims of circumstance and that we have no control over our own happiness, then we are doomed to have nothing more than a life of thoughtless accidents.

As grateful as I am that I don't fall into the above category, I still find myself slipping back into the human habit of getting caught up in the physical world once in awhile. I have to stop feeling as if it is my responsibility to 'fix' everyone so they can also realize for the first time what they are doing to themselves. But some people just aren't able to reach this level of awareness, and it isn't my job to change this. Instead I have to find a way to accept the fact that we are all different and that this is probably a good thing after all.