Thanks for Saving My Life

We lived on a fifty-acre dirt farm and lived a subsistence farming life. There was nothing but a three-mile trail to our house. My father and mother were only a few generations out of slavery. They were conditioned to a farming way of life. My father had gotten away from the farm and had lost some of his slave conditioning. But this way of life was still ingrained in my mother. My father was away, for the most part, and my mother turned me loose with the other domesticated animals on the farm. I was happy in my isolation as a child running around with the animals. I’m still thankful for some things I remember as an adult about my childhood. Though, there was not much nurturing or support. My mother had raised nine children, and you might say she was burnt out, and my father had left her alone on the farm with the children. I remember I was approximately three years old. My brother was plowing in the field. It was July and the corn was knee-high. He was making the last furrows in the corn. The newly plowed dirt felt good on my toes. I was barefoot, had pigtails in my hair, and had on a dress handed down from my two youngest sisters. My mother wasn’t deliberately cruel; there was method to her madness. She was used to making do with whatever she had. We had no electricity, gas, telephone, or plumbing. We had only a trail to our house, and she figured no one would blaze that trail to get a look at me. Besides, my mother had her own mental health issues. When I think about the pigtails and the dress, I figure it was my mother’s way of getting back at my father for leaving her alone with the children. This is about all I can remember about growing up until I started school. I never will forget when I first moved to the South Suburbs of Chicago in 1974. I remember seeing a big sign posted on a billboard that read: “I know you are saved but saved from what.” This sign resonated with something in my spirit. Thanks to those who posted that sign. I knew even at that time that I would use these words in something I would write. I was impressed by the sign, and it touched me in a special way. You might wonder from the title of this book what I was saved from in my life. By saving my life I mean literally keeping me alive and giving me a decent quality of life. I was able to work for seventeen years before going on disability. I have gone to college, joined the military, attended graduate school; have a nice home, two cars, sent two sons to college, have a wonderful wife, and two fine sons. Both my sons did well for themselves and enjoyed a decent quality of life. While following the principles of Balance in the Universe, you must also keep in mind that you need to figure out what your assignment and your purpose is. You can save yourself by following the principles of balance and adhering to your assignment and your purpose. In addition, you can have a worthwhile life, and help to save yourself by respecting yourself, and other people. Your salvation will come based upon how you treated your fellow man. Some have said that no matter what you do, you’ll be most remembered for how you treat people. In this way, you can save your life. If you live your life according to principles of balance you will no doubt achieve a good end. What helped to save my life was that I lived by adhering to the principles of Balance in the Universe. I am not an atheist. I simply believe that rather than the God of the Bible, there is only the Balance in the Universe. This is the only God we will ever know for sure. Sometimes it only takes one person, organization, or scenario to be instrumental in saving your life. For other individuals it takes several people, scenarios, and situations. I had many such situations that were important to saving my life. Today, I have good health, and was able to do well for myself—or what I call well. This is basically what I mean by saving my life. I am sure it might mean different things to different people, or different things at different times in our history. I thank all those people, scenarios, and organizations that I mentioned in this book for literally saving my life. Some of them had more influence than others, but the important thing is that the efforts all worked together in a coordinated way to produce a good result. Some people go through life pointing out the negative things in their life. I wish to flip the script, and point out some of the positives, and make even some of the negatives seem positive. Sometimes we think obstacles, trials, tribulations, and storms are there to hinder us, but they are frequently there to help us reach our destiny. The Balance in the Universe has a plan. Try to figure out what this plan is for your life and follow it. The individuals, scenarios, and organizations I have mentioned are not placed in any order of relevance or significance but are placed according to the way they moved my spirit. Note that I had more to say about some of these individuals, scenarios, and organizations than others. Again, this is not for any reason, except the way the spirit moved in my heart and soul. These individuals, organizations, and scenarios all helped to save my life, either by teaching me what to do, or what not to do, by commission or omission, and figuratively or literally. I am what I am because they were what they were. When I have the tendency to think I made it all by myself I read this book. If you have that tendency, search your soul, and you can see where you had some help. I apologize to those I failed to mention who made any contribution to my development whatsoever. If I failed to mention you it was because I was unaware of the person, organization, or scenario’s role in helping me. This book is for you too, and I thank you for any little thing you might have done to help me along the way. I’m sure I had more help than I am aware of. The names in this book in most instances have been changed to protect the actual characters. Otherwise, with all accept the names, it is purely a nonfiction book. Check out this and other of my books @ www.willisjay.com, by Jay Thomas Willis. Jay Thomas Willis Richton Park, Illinois