Meet New Friends for Happy Thoughts

tropicalguide from has written 112 comments

Thanks for reminding me of the "walking on Eggshells" people..these are generally persons who think or believe they are special, righteous or possess deep knowledge that you and I 'don't have'. In reality such persons are egomaniacs with inferiority complexes, highly intelligent and manipulative. such persons can be toxic, harmful to one's mental health. Be polite and nice, excuse yourself and walk away from them, follow your gut feeling. Get a second opinion from others how they feel around this person, if in doubt.
We live in a imperfect world, when travelers travel, Ex Pats settle, Missionaries come to preach, no matter from what country to what country I, you and they all carry their emotional baggage with (me, us them) 24/7. At least I am able to take quiet time at the end of the day, take my own inventory and learn from my mistakes, errors in judgement. There is some useless baggage I am able to get rid of at quiet time, I call them resentments, they belong in the garbage can. Today is good, the Easter Holidays are over. Tommorow is another day.

guru(smile) Andy.

I never realized I would learn so much in my approaching elder years. For decades I lived as if this life was a burden to trudge thru. Now there is a glimps of a growing smile deep down inside.

Thanks.

Hello Andy, slightly off topic but want to read a great article: google 'Mighty America's 5 stages of rapid decline'. Very thoughtful and nuanced. Also gives solid suggestions on how to turn things around. Also all this is true for individuals as much as for the country as whole.

The following is a e, "The signature of the truly great versus the merely successful is not the absence of difficulty. It's the ability to come back from setbacks, even cataclysmic catastrophes, stronger than before ... great companies ...great social institutions ... great individuals can fall and recover. As long as you never get entirely knocked out of the game, there remains hope."

The key? Great leaders. New Churchill: Obama? Romney? Palin? Who? ".

I think a lot of us are less than happy thoughts right now, but we must remember that just as things sometimes get worse, they also get better. Love your blog. Tommy T

Asiabill from has written 258 comments

I experienced the same feelings the first time back in late 80s about the same length of time living "life on the road" as you have been now ( left the States Jan 77 ). Of course hooking up with my wife Lorna influenced my choices of settling down and focusing on the future for a change. I noticed among our circle of world traveler "friends" that their excitement for traveling to new countries had faded and they started to seem like uninspired drifters and I KNEW then I didn't EVER want to fall into the mindset. You being single could be a factor in your moodiness regarding making new friends and since turning 50 years old my wife and I have noticed widespread age discrimination among the new generation of budget travelers. Guess they haven't heard nor believe that "You're as OLD as you FEEL" saying. I was guilty of the same attitudes in my 20s but about 30 years old I realized that some teenagers are VERY OLD, mature and wise whereas some 60++ year olds were VERY YOUNG at heart and often immature and foolish. So age stopped being a meter in which I used to judge people.