The Measure Of a Man

A Measure of a Man:

If I were to take the entirety of my life and put it on a scale what would it look like. The bigger question is what could I measure. Would it be accomplishments, friends, lives I have touched, money I have spent, the size of my heart the depth of my soul, the strength of my body, possessions, obstacles I have overcome, happiness, primary relationships, children and their safety, happiness, and resolve. Have I left anything out? Probably regardless the next step would be to look at all the above on both sides of the scale. I have looked at each day as a new beginning a birthday to be celebrated; felt the pain and the joy of sacrifice, I now look to the measurement of life, mine. In it’s most romantic sense it is easy to wake up each day and wipe out the past and begin anew. But as I believe even in rebirth there is Karma. And can I forget that I failed as a driver so I crashed a motorcycle, as every day I look at rebirth, I look into the mirror and see the scare upon my face. With the concept of Karma embodied then I must accept that upon rebirth I still carry the debts and the scares of the past. I can redefine in the rebirth process but the highest potential outcome would be to be a better, stronger, person, more capable of managing my Karma from this life and those behind me, and the relationship to the scares that never heal. It has been said that the measure of a mans life are those who walk beside him or those who stand by his grave. I believe it is how I feel in my heart and how strong my spirit is. Bruce Springsteen wrote in one of my favorite of his songs “ I remember being 5 years old following behind you tracings your footprints in the sand trying to walk like a man.” I did not have a teacher or guide to what is means to be a man. Through my life I have looked to many as my guides taking a little here and a little there. Today I am filled with self doubt, defeat, and questions of trust. My life is committed to mastery, how much of this is illusion, how much truth. Can a life be measured and if so only against oneself.
I my biggest critic and judge but if not me then who. Today I will walk on the beach and leave my own foot prints in the sand trying to walk like a man.
IF
by Rudyard Kippling

If you can keep your head
when all about you are losing theirs
And blaming it on you.
If you can trust yourself
when all men doubt you
But make allowance for their doubting too.
If you can dream and not make dreams your master.
If you can think and not make thoughts your aim.
If you can meet with triumph and disaster.
And treat those two impostors just the same.
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken
And stoop and build'em up with worn out tools.
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch and toss
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss.
If you can force your heart, and nerve, and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone
And so "hold on" when there is nothing on you
except the will which says to them "hold on!"
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue
Or walk with kings, nor lose the common touch.
If neither foe nor loving friend can hurt you.
If all men count with you ... but none too much.
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
with sixty seconds worth of distant run.
Yours is the earth, and everything that's in it.
And which is more ... You'll be a Man, my son.
HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW
Lives of great men all remind us
We can make our lives sublime,
And departing, leave behind us
Footprints on the sands of time.

I ache to be a better me……………..