A Personal Manifesto

Changed By Love
A Personal Manifesto

I've had bad things happen to me in my life, but I will not use that as an excuse to act badly.

I choose to get my energy from the goodness I've been exposed to. I choose not to feed on the negative forces that have surrounded me at different times in my life.

I choose love over hate, not because I am naive and innocent, but because I've seen what hate does to a soul. I will not have that inside me!

I will respect my elders, because they have tread the path before me and made it easier.

I will respect my peers, because I know we each have our battles to fight, our obstacles to overcome, our broken hearts.

I will respect the children and young adults in my life, because they still have to travel the hard parts that are behind me now. I offer myself to them to lead when they need guidance, and to serve when they are broken.

I will live my life as honestly as I can, reflecting daily on my actions and my motives to see if I could have done things differently and achieved a better result. I will always strive for better results, even in those small things that no one else will ever see.

On the other hand....

I will not be so uptight about my life that I forget how to smile, how to laugh, how to forgive, how to apologize, how to rest, how to dance, how to have a water fight, how to love my cat even when I have to scoop up her shit.

I am happy because I choose to be.

I am beautiful because I choose to see myself that way.

I am content to embrace my imperfections. In my youth, I always held myself up to an impossible standard, and set myself up for one failure after another. I refuse to do that to myself ever again.

This life is not long, it is not easy, but it is the only life I have. As Jimi Hendrix once said, "I'm the one that's gotta die when it's time for me to die, so let me live my life the way I want to." (If 6 was 9)

I choose to believe in God, to love my country, to look for the lesson in every trial, to look for the
good in every person.

I refuse to be changed by evil. I choose to be changed by love.

Rhonda Lee Richoux
a.k.a. The Last Flower Child
http://thelastflowerchild.tripod.com/