My life is imbued with spirituality. I don’t need edifices with ornate decorations or rules made by anointed men who claim authority over what I think or what I believe. I don’t think such men have a special pipe-line to God. What I believe in is the spirituality of human connectedness and that as humans, we owe loving kindness to ourselves and others. Fortunately, I have been able to abstract lessons from both happy and unfortunate life experiences.

These lessons I hope have led me to making good life choices, thus each time making me a better person. My decision-making is based upon the qualities of kindness and empathy. I consciously avoid making choices that employ vindictiveness or avaricious self-aggrandizement. In short, I try to make decisions that are kind and empathetic. I make my decisions not out of fear of hell or the promise of an eternal reward. Rather, I make them based upon what I believe a kind and just human being would do.

Further, my belief is that each of us is entitled to pray in our own way. There is no need for outside prescription, my heart tells me the way. My favorite sanctuaries are the forest and my patio. Walks in the forest with the sun beaming through fragrant trees and flora accompanied by sounds of nature are soothing as I listen to the songs of my soul. The other sanctuary is my backyard patio, where in the evening I meditate while quietly enjoying twilight and the sounds of a cricket choir and the songs of nightbirds before darkness falls.

In sum, my philosophy of life is to be a good and kind person and to love my neighbor as myself.