Old Hank

It’s 6:40 am on a cold, sharp frosty morning here in Cheshire. As I look out the window that faces my computer I can see the red and pink colors of the morning in the sky. It looks stunning. I just wonder how many people notice that while they rush around getting ready to jump in their car and leave for the office in the daily rush?

It reminded me of the story of ‘Old Hank’.

Old Hank was 84 when he died. He had a long life, more years than most. He look fit, he looked healthy and he could work like a Horse. That was old Hank.

Old Hank was a loner. He was alone. He never married although had his share of women. He never had kids but loved the idea of being a dad. He rarely had friends because Hank was always doing what he does. Hank wanted kids and wanted a wife… but not until he found IT!

In fact you could find Hank in the same place, the same spot for years. Digging, searching, waiting.

Hank was a Gold miner. He dug for Gold until the day he died. Many people loved old Hank. They would take him food, gifts, clothes and friendship. But speaking with Hank was near impossible unless you’d climb down into the hole with him where he would hold his old pick in his leather like hands, day in, day out digging and searching for the Gold.

On the most incredible day, stunning skies, beautiful nights Hank never noticed, His focus was single minded. His eyes looked forward with the intensity of an Eagle. Just in case, just for the moment that the glint of gold would shine through the dust. His vision was tunnel, straight ahead, almost blind to anything. Hank so nothing around him, only his own puruits of what was to come. It never came.

One day old Hank got too old and he passed away. At 84 his last breath left him. He had gone, expired and ceased to exist any longer.

His funeral talk was strange. The local sheriff took control and all he could find to say about Hank was this…

"Old Hank… He searched and search, he dug and dug, he looked and looked and then he died"

Old Hank had spent 70 years in a hole digging for Gold, Why?

Hank believed his happiness would come on the day he struck Gold. He believed his future would come from finding Gold. It would make him rich, give him everything, solve everything.

He lived in a stunning country and never noticed it. He was surrounded by spectacular wildlife and never saw any of it. He had the love of good women want ing to share with him. He never saw them.

The gold, his future, his happiness, it didn’t arrive. When someone told him there was gold here or gold there, Hank would move on. When someone said there was gold in the river, Hank would move on. Hank was like a man possessed in his pursuit for answers to "where is the Gold?"

Old Hank WASTED his life. Gave it away to the god of nothing. He forfeited his own life experiences in the pursuit of something that would ultimately take his life.

Day after day, year after year, month after month for 70 endless years Hank only saw what Hank could never find.

Yes he may have been dedicated but he became sad, lonely and isolated. Alone with no one to talk to apart from the stars.

I wonder how many old Hanks walk the Earth right now?

People, humans in pursuit of something else. Digging, looking, searching, waiting for the answers, the gold, the solutions to life.

They will watch TV waiting for an answer. Listen to others waiting for an answer. Go anywhere and everywhere, looking, searching waiting for an answers. And  others, they do nothing, they are so conditioned they spend their lives on a pre-programmed automation.

Yet the reality is the gold is in YOU. The truth is in YOU. The solutions are in YOU. You are your happiness. There can only be NOW.

Yet most humans are conditioned to believe that happiness and satisfaction is always tied into what is coming rather than what is NOW.

You know; work hard and get a new car, get a bigger house, get more of this, find more of that. Another relationship. Another marriage. Another wasted life. Gone. Really?

And it’s worth noting that the pursuit of what is coming is impossible to find. Why? Because a future event is not yet here. We cannot promise that it will arrive. So we are always wrapped up in something that is truly unattainable. Sad don’t you think that most of mankind accept that kind of thinking?

I am sure old Hank would at times sit on his own by his fire in his cabin and wonder how on Earth his life passed him by so fast. It’s right isn’t, when we become almost engrossed in anything time passes by. And before we know it… our life … our time…. It’s come to a short close.

You have what you need. It is inside of you. You have what you want. It’s inside of you. You have what it takes to make you happy. You were created with it.

Can you see the sky today and enjoy it, share it with another?
Can you see the large Oak and wonder in amazement how on earth does it get water to the top from the bottom?
Can you see the birds outside and appreciate how busy they are cleaning and feeding the Earth?
Can we look our loved ones in the eyes and be with them NOW, accept them and enjoy and share life with them.

Or are we so busy in searching, digging, looking, waiting for answers we suddenly look back and it’s all gone?

You have one life.

You can be like Old Hank, bury yourself in a hole of your own creation and allow life to vanish like the morning mist.

Or…

You can be yourself.

Don’t worry if you see yourself in the above… any second of any day is a chance for you to chage direction. Can today be that day?

It’s Friday, it’s a wonderful day.

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