RE: Associating With Good People

Your first sentence is the essence of a message consistently preached by one of my Pastors.

Allow me to share the power of conviction in the righteousness path. While I did pick up drinking and smoking for some years, in the back of my mind I knew how to quit. The party scene was always around me. Maybe since my birth. Certainly since I first remember running. But it was running, exercise, sports, exploring the outdoors, meditation, pursuit of knowledge and faith that kept me focused on a future that would leave behind tobacco and alcohol. Simply running to the top of a mountain or breathing in the first dew-filled air along the NJYC metropolis inspired by the morning solar wind was all the truth I needed for the eternity of life. It is peace, hope and faith shared by others to start the day.

Many say quitting smoking is hard, but I was blessed with the idea of picking up a book on the Science of Breath written by eastern and western educated doctors to become fully aware of what each inhale of a cigarette was costing. I then realized a similar feeling from holding my breath. Had I learned to activate nicotine receptors by depriving my brain of oxygen.. IDK, but I put down my last cigarette decades ago and do not even recall my last puff :) True power extinguishes ill thoughts.

God bless