- No drugs or alcohol.
- Family.
- No debt.
- God.
These propositions make me an outcast or a rebel in my home town. Or at least I’m unusual, therefore slightly suspect.
I’m not quite debt-free. I have the cash to pay off the mortgage now. But it has a low, low interest rate and . . . well, look at what the Washington DC crowd has done to inflation. There is no need to throw a lump of cash at the mortgage. Better to invest the cash elsewhere. With normal installments the mortgage will be paid off soon enough: in 31 months. I’m not sweating this.
The real battle for a good life is hand-to-hand combat with self. Do I live with a contented, peaceful, friendly, accepting mind? It is possible to live in a self-created hell, even clean and sober, free of economic pressures, and surrounded by loving family.
The solution is God. The Kingdom of God is within. Seek ye first the Kingdom of Heaven. Etc.
The good life is not made with externals. My car does not make a good life. The good life is a good interior life. A spiritual life. (That is why number 1—no drugs or alcohol—is essential. First, remove the impediments to clear thinking. Then and only then can you hear the messages you need to hear).
And that, dear reader, is where I am now: seeking God daily, hourly.