Each day, we are called upon (as Simon knows) to choose life. We can be angry. We can be afraid. We can complain about the way the world is.

Or not.

Yesterday someone e-mailed me that she loved my work, but she thought I was a pompous jerk for discouraging gifts and visits to the farm and personal e-mails.  She was disappointed in me, she said, because I was disingenous and hypocritical.I wrote back to here. Thanks for the good words, I said, I appreciate them.

It took me a good many years to finally grasp this, especially the idea that when you forego anger, fear, jealousy, judgment, you are moving to a higher place each time you do it. And nobody can do it all of the time. The Dalai Lama says he gets ticked off all the time and has a nasty temper.  But we are all tied to one another, one way or the other. Everytime I come up, rather than go down I feel stronger, better, less afraid. Perhaps I am pulling someone else up just a bit.

I must say it is hard and unrelenting work, as the world calls upon us every day – the law, health care, politics, the Internet, angry people – to be angry and to be afraid.To be vigilant suspicious.

Other people have to make their own judgements. Sometimes, if you come up, they come up with you. Usually, they just go away. Each time is an opportunity to be stronger.