There is Light at the End of EVERY Tunnel! YOU are that light!

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"There is no way of life more desolate or more pitiful 
then one of ignorance of the fundamental joy
that issues from the struggle 
to generate and regenerate one's own life from within. 
To be human is much more 
than the biological facts of standing erect 
and exercising reasoning and intelligence. 
The full and genuine meaning of our humanity 
is found in tapping the creative fonts of life itself."

Daisaku Ikeda, Buddhism Day by Day, Wisdom for Modern Life, page 67

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Whatever you do - just don't give up! 

I just updated this blog title because reader Brian Mann reminded me that WE are the lights in the tunnel. Of course! Thank you Brian!

These last couple of months have been so challenging for me. I've been sad about my son, restless about my life, and, above all, longing for the sunshine. There have been days where I've thought "What can I tell my precious blog readers? I am having a hard time seeing the hope in my life - how can I help them?" 

And then, because I kept up my practice, kept studying, introducing others, and deepening my prayer, I cracked opened the power within my life, I am witnessing a new sun starting to shine within my life and in my environment. 

It is just as Daisaku Ikeda says over and over. A new day will dawn. Just don't give up!

As I was going through this darkness I bolstered myself by thinking "Jamie, you are going to have so much more compassion for people who are suffering, because of this. There will be a light at the end of the tunnel even though you can't see it. Now you've experienced loneliness, you've experienced grieving, you've written poem after poem and opened your heart in a new way...one day you will appreciate this, even this, dark time." 

And I kept in mind something a leader said recently: "YOU wrote the story of your life, and for sure, you write it every day. You've got to know you wrote a happy ending!" 

And it's the truth. And, as my friend Mark Lutnes just reminded me, "It's not just the ending that's happy!" 

Today the sun is shining. Yesterday it came out for a while, but so did 70 mile per hour winds. Woosh! 

I have, as always a full schedule. I'm working hard on Ben's Memorial Mile which will be held her in Downers Grove, Illinois, at Downers Grove North High School, about 25 miles west of Chicago on June 11th, 2016. It will bring the community together to honor Ben's life, raise money to end schizophrenia, and provide runs, walks and a really fun time for all ages. You are invited! Come one, come all!

And I'm heading down to the Florida Keys for a few days next weekend. I've always wanted to visit the keys. I love the peninsulas of this world (although the keys are actually islands, connected to Florida by long bridges) ....San Francisco, Provincetown...they attract artists and music and people who do not conform to the rest of the world, but make the world their own. I'd wanted to go, and suddenly some doors opened and I just stepped right through them. 

Whatever you are going through - JUST KEEP GOING and you will get to the other side!