"The purpose of spiritual practice is to fulfill our desire for happiness. We are all equal in wishing to be happy and to overcome our suffering, and I believe that we all share the right to fulfill that aspiration"
- HRH, The Dalai Lama

So here we are asking 10, 20, 100 times a day "Hey, how are you". And then you go home to the family......
Kiss, kiss, oh darling could you bath the kids while I get dinner ready? Thankyou sweetheart.
Splash, splash, giggle, giggle, daddy, daddy,
Good night daady. Goodnight sweetheart.
Good night darling. Good night sweetheart.
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.......
Buzzzzzzz, riiiing,
DITTO DAY.
REPEAT
REPEAT
REPEAT

I did it. Day after day. Year after year.
NOT ONCE in all my pre-crash years did I sit down by myself, relax, no busyness, no television, close my eyes and say "Hey, how are you?"
It may not seem a big deal. It is to me now. I keep writing about other people's stories. Other people's bad stuff. I keep living with other people's bad stuff. But I forget to ask myself how I AM. Then other people's stories drag me down. I keep forgetting that I have to fight like everybody else. I take for granted that I live in a tent. I get cocky with my self-belief. Until it begins to hurt. My thinking becomes blurred. My creativity and writing suffers because my meditation drops off because I have a sore toe, and the rain doesn't stop, and............
Then I have to go back where I don't want to go. I have to go into my past. I have to check my recent EXPERIENCES. Then I ask that question "How ya doin'?' And I know the answer. I'm not doing well at all because I have become complacent. When that happens I will tell you the 'procedure'.......
It's like depression. One particular thing in your life is really "BUGGING" you. It's causing you GRIEF. It's a YUKKY thing and you know you don't like it. So you don't think about it. You hope it will go away. But it doesn't.........

The OTHER stuff. The NEGOB is laughing at how pathetic you are, letting your defences down, letting him in to spread his disease. But you are unaware. You are hiding behind that one bad thing that you don't want to think about.....
By the time you COLLAPSE, rather than relax, and ask yourself THAT question "How the HELL are you? No, reeeeally.....", that one single thing has built itself into a storm that is going to take a lot of work to get over. Just like the tornado that rocked my world a few weeks ago, they are still cleaning up after it!
So what's the solution? Hmmm....
Weeeell, it's like this. Each and every one of us has a BEAUTY WITHIN. Some can find it, some don't look, and others like ME have a lot of trouble believing that they have any beauty within at all. We might be good 'people' people but we are no good with ourselves. And so we have a lot of trouble with the question because our 'picture' of ourselves is blurred. It is a long hard road to find that BEAUTY within. And when 'STUFF' happens we are very very vulnerable. We are not aware. I can be perfectly honest with you all, as I will always be. I have progressed because of my Journey. I no longer feel that I am WORTHLESS because I am continually working on my spiritualism, my religion and my consciousness. I am trying to become aware but I often fall back into the abyss, the darkness. Because I can't find the beauty within (YET!) I struggle. I remain vulnerable. It is why I have progressed from worthless but have not made it to I LIKE YOU. It's why I forget to be aware at all times. Fixing ME is hard. But I will keep going. I will find the BEAUTY WITHIN. And that will be the day I not only LIKE but LOVE ME. That will be the day I find TRUE HAPPINESS.
I know that this world of ours is full of beautiful people who are blessed with a BEAUTY WITHIN and if you are one of those be proud. If not, weeeell.......
..........there is a solution. And it's a very simple one. Instead of asking everyone else how they are, every day you greet them, after you have bathed the kids, eaten dinner, and kissed the special one 'goodnight', BE WITH YOURSELF.....
BE AWARE of YOU and ask the question at the end of EVERY day.....
....."Hey, HOW AAAARE YOU?.....No reeeeeally........."