Introduction

So, for all intensive purposes during this blog I want my name to be Jiminy Cricket. I want to be the path of least resistence, I want to be the one that people feel comfortable to come to and express whatever their problems are. No matter what they have going on in their lives I want to be able to fix the problem, and I promise that if I don’t have the answer I will do everything in my power to make sure that I can find the right answer.

This story and the many stories that follow are just that … they are stories. Elaborated on, exaggerated over time, and constantly evolving with the time that goes by and the amount that I have told them. This first one is the only exception to the common thread. This one is the only one that will never change, but it sets the tone of what I want to say and what I want to convey. This blog won’t just be stories and it won’t ust be advice. This will be a description of how I (a real human male) lives his life and hopefully some of you can change the way you look at life.

The first of many, and the most important. The story about the meeting of the happiest man I have ever met.

Quite a few years ago I was at college and walking down the street coming back to class from lunch. Out of no where, and I mean literally out of no where, a homeless man came out of no where and just hugged me. Now I am not a paranoid person, nor am I a man who usually feels uncomfortable about a situation. When this hug ended I immediately checked all my pockets to make sure that everything was there, and this man instead of being hurt by the situation immediately started to laugh out loud. I stopped checking my pockets and asked him,

“Why are you laughing? I am not going to lie it isn’t very often I get surprise hugged by a homeless man.”

The man responded, “I know and I don’t usually just give out bear hugs to random people walking down the street, especially other grown men who are twice my size. Thank you for not hitting me.”

“You’re welcome”, I responded, “What was the hug for?”

“Because you look like you may have needed some love from a complete stranger man.”

Now during this time I was going through some rather unlovely stuff dealing with an ex-girlfriend that was completely toxic for my life. To make matters fair, I was not so healthy for her life either. We both just wanted to be the best of the best in the relationship and neither one us actually put any effort into it.

I looked at the man and said, “How about I buy you a sandwhich? Or some food in genreal? When was the last time that you ate?”

He looked at me and seemed to have to think about his answer, but after a couple minutes he said, “It has got to be about two days now.”

After a couple of minutes of back and forth with him refusing. I told him that I wouldn’t listen to what he had to say unless he let me buy him lunch or at least share one.

We than decided to walk over to the restaurant called Burgers2Beer and he ordered what he wanted (I had already eaten just about everything on the menu so it was his choice). He decided to order one of my favorite burgers (the O’Cheezus) and when we got the food we went out onto the patio sat at one of the tables and split the food 50/50. What he said to me next, when we finished eating, is something that has always stuck with me.

So I can go play by play like I have been about what was said back and forth, but I don’t want to because it just takes to long to type out when I could just get to the point, or the meat of the story. When we were finished eating, we were sitting there and enjoying a cigerette and he was explaining to me about how he became homeless, how he had been living in the church overhang, and how he just constantly wanted to make his life better. He never once lost his smile, never once looked sad (even when he talked about sleeping outside under the church), and never lost his optimistic outlook on everything that he had going for him.

Now I am just beating around the bush, it is time to get to the meaty center of the pie right? Well the main message that this homeless man taught me, the message that has stayed with me going on seven years… No matter what happens in your life there is nothing more powerful than happiness. Alright, I am going to repeat that becuase this came from a homeless man. NO MATTER WHAT HAPPENS IN YOUR LIFE THERE IS NOTHING MORE POWERFUL THAN HAPPINESS! A man who has nothing told me about happiness being the most important thing that you need in life. Just let that mull over in your mind. I have met homeless, poor, middle class, upper class, and filthy rich, and never before has anyone ever looked me in the eyes as this man did and told me that the secret to life is happiness.

Now he went more into detail… His message to me was that happiness isn’t something that you have to acquire, it can be, but it doesn’t have to be. Happiness is something that you tell yourself you are, and after so many times of saying it and feeling it you just become it. I know what you are thinking, and that probably goes along with how preposterous that is, but let me tell you that it actually works. After that moment I constantly thought that, and eventually I now became happy. To some people, I am the happiest man they’ve met, and to others I am the man that nothing can get a rise out of. All of that is becasue of the message that I learned from the happiest man in the world.

Jiminy Cricket