Code of Conduct

"All beings want to be happy. Yet finding happiness is often not as simple as it appears."  Dalai Lama of Tibet

Today I went to my weekly cancer support group at the library.  The topic of the day was about the will to live and the reasons why we really wanted to live.  The narrator of the group was a clinical therapist who explained her thoughts about how to prolong your life while fighting cancer.  An important point she made was that it is natural for most people to resist death but while fighting cancer it is also natural to feel depressed and lacking at times to want to go on fighting with the  pain, stress and exhaustion.  She also pointed out that people seek happiness in many different was, yet the desired result frequently remains elusive. Most people look to their jobs, children, relationships or a hundred others places for fulfillment and happiness. These solutions may work for at least a short time, however, the long term affect lies in finding your deeper needs, priorities and true purpose in life.  Not an easy task for most of us.
The exercise she gave us was to write down a list of how we want to be remember when you are gone.  At first this seemed a little morbid but once I started writing my list I began to see that I had good intentions but need to work harder to achieve this list. This is my list:
1. Someone who was trustworthy
2. A good mother, wife, sister and friend
3. Someone who could laugh at themselves
4. Someone who was compassionate
5. A women who true to her word and committed to her word as her bond
6. A caring human who is generous with my time
7. A good listener
8. Someone who has a good sense of humor.
This was a good exercise for me and I urge other to try it.  I know where I can improve and where some of these things can help me find happiness.