Philosophy now only 84 cents

In my travels I have learned that there are four basic attitudes that have enabled me to make my life as interesting as possible:

1.  Have a genuine interest in meeting people.  Seeing mountains, ruins and statues is wonderful, but after a while they blur in your memory, their names mostly forgotten, but you will never forget the people you get to know, especially those who open their homes and hearts to you.

2.  To get love and respect, you must show love and respect.  Life is too short not to be interesting as possible, and a life lived with love and respect is the most interesting of all.

3.  There are three basic educations in life – school, work and travel.  Travelling, be it locally or internationally, has always been my passion.  I want to learn as much as I can about the world I live in, to meet people and see as much as I can.  Every moment in life is an education in itself if you take an interest in others and keep your eyes open for interesting things to see and do.  Your happiness is your responsibility.

4. The greatest enemy is fear.  If you pay too much attention to tales of caution, you will never leave the house.  Talk to as many people as possible who have actually done what you fear to do or have been where you fear to go and disregard rumours and naysayers especially if their information is second or third hand information.  Governments usually err on the side of caution at their best or use fear to manipulate at their worst. Generally fears are often totally unfounded.

More importantly, I have found regardless of the colour of our skin or the different languages we all speak or the varied religions we practice (or don´t practice), we are all the same.

Approaching people at home or abroad with this attitude goes a long way to making life more meaningful.

Today was a great example of how meaningful other people can make life.

I had an amazing time with my Starbucks co-worker Nathalie Castaglia and her man Ricardo Utsumi.  We enjoyed a Cordon Bleu school type lunch, exchanged life stories of our pasts prior to Switzerland, and basically spent a very pleasant few hours in our own mutual respect society.  To my delight, they set up my Facebook profile picture and made this blog a reality.

It is absolutely fabulous to spend time in the company of two people who so clearly love one another.

Nathalie is a passionate and compassionate beautiful woman in both body and spirit.

Ricardo has a quiet dignity and gentleman´s grace I envy to the depths of my soul. (I am as subtle as a steamroller running over a rabbit.)

They are truly souls I hope to meet in heaven if such a place exists and if I merit such a place!

They are a reminder that I am truly blessed by all the wonderful people in my life and because of them I have a life well-lived indeed.