Do Not Blindly Believe What Others Say. See For Yourself What Brings Contentment, Clarity and Peace. That Is The Path For You To Follow.

I found out today that my family's holy man (aka priest) died a few days ago. This dude knew our family through four generations and actually played a pivotal role in what happened to me post-accident. We had a conversation while I was still in the hospital, our first one in years since I hadn't gone to church in ages. He had been on call to give Last Rites if need be but instead ended up counseling me once I woke up. He was in his 70's at the time and had just talked to me about my girlfriend's accident a week or so earlier. Ironically he was about the only person who didn't tell me that it was "god's will" or any other crap try to tell you when you lose someone. He'd just listened. And he listened again while I was in a hospital bed telling him I didn't believe in anything anymore. His response? "Well I don't blame you, son." It was definitely unexpected but it was exactly what I needed to hear. Nobody else seemed to get that I just needed to be upset and grieve in my own way. A few weeks after I got out of the hospital I walked into church for the first time in a long time. We talked for a few hours about so many different things and I told him that I didn't understand why any of this stuff had happened and that I was so pissed off about it. He said I was having a major crisis of faith and that I needed to seek out something to believe in or else I was gonna self-destruct. That holy man knew what he was talking about. I did start seeking but I also took a break to self-destruct. I got caught up in all the bad stuff and lost touch with him, but he still talked to my aunt and company and knew what was going on with the family. One day I was reading through one of my books on religion and a certain passage (also the title of this post) reminded me of him. It was everything he'd told me years before. I saw him for what turned out to be the last time almost exactly a year ago. He looked good and he told me he was proud of me for getting things together. I told him I felt much better than before and was very much at peace with where I was, especially spiritually. He said he wanted to have a conversation about my "journey" but since it was the holidays, he was pretty booked up. I left before we could have that talk and now we won't get the chance to. But I will always be grateful for the talks we did have. RIP Father.