What is the Most Important Thing in Your Life?

Wow..what a challenging question. Many would say their children, money, and health, perhaps not in that order but family, money, and health seem to be at the top of the list. After reviewing this question with an elder, peace of mind is the ultimate. Granted we are all different with different levels of expectations and desires. I do believe that changes with either maturity or age, whichever comes first. If we had the opportunity to step out of ourselves and review how we lived, acted, and reacted to our life situations I think most of us would see that improvement is needed on how we want to be perceived, how we people, and how we groom our children. They learn from examples, not by what we say.

I was asked if you could see into your future would you live the same way? The obvious is that we cannot see the future, but we can see the past. Making each day better than the one before sounds promising, but how do we begin to establish change or correction. When speaking to an elder of 93 years, you begin to put your life into perspective. For me, I would say the most important thing in my life is maintaining my health and my right frame of mind. I felt a bit selfish when the elder said the most important thing in her life is improving or touching someone else's life. "Giving folk knowledge" sharing information, teaching people how to read. It is inevitable that I will die, she said "but if I was only here on this earth for a little while "I would want to make a difference, it gives me such pleasure to see folks grow and blossom".

As I listened to the people around me I heard, me and mine, so few think about others, sharing not just money but knowledge, understanding, and time. There is nothing wrong with having goals, growing, and being successful. Just don't forget about empowerment, legacy, and reputation because that is what we will leave on earth for our children, family, and friends. Teach one, lead one and we will be one

Jobs For Criminals Re-Entering Society

It is a known fact that criminals released from prison or jail have almost no luck in finding a job. How long should a criminal be punished and are some crimes more understandable than others? We ask ourselves why is recidivism so high? Primarily because once convicted both companies and landlords choose to alienate criminals for fear of them repeating their crimes. Criminals are driven back into a life of crime due to a number of reasons but lack of guidance and alienation is high on the list.

So now that we realize that there is a problem, how do we fix it, where do we go from here? Should we choose which criminals deserve a second chance? My goal is to put together a list of companies that will hire men and women with criminal backgrounds who show a legitimate effort to be productive law-abiding citizens. An alternative to work is being educated to run a business. This is a problem that society does not want to own.