meeladaj, you have come to a good place. I won't go into detail, but I understand where you've been and where you are now. But hey, you now have a lot going for you!

1) You should be commended for going the extra mile (ha! all 2,000 of them) to follow your heart and find your way within, and without.

2) You've had the insight and foresight to seek the assistance of Learning Strategies programs. You therefore are pointed in the direction of excellence.

3) You have literally freed yourself from dependence on medical drugs.

4) Your decision to separate yourself from negative influences took guts. You risked being temporarily alone, but not lonely, as you chose hope in the new, and faith in the future.

5) You are very genuine. What you see is what you get. No facades, barriers, or attitudes.

6) In your profile, I noticed your interests. You said, "improving the quality of my life and of those around me". That alone, says a lot about you, and where you are headed.

I know what you mean, when you say that positive people, much less those who wish to be friends, are hard to find. Everyone seems to be tightly wrapped up in their own lives, with no vacancy for a new person, especially if they haven't been formally introduced to them. But you know what? That can change. JUST NOW, AS I WAS THINKING ABOUT IT, I RECEIVED AN ANSWER TO THE PROBLEM.

You see, most people pretty much get what they expect, no matter how loving, thoughtful, and caring they might be. You and I are both proof of that. So this is what I propose: From now on, let's reprogram our expectations, and be casually but thoroughly convinced that we always naturally attract into our realm, IN PERSON, positive people of like mind. It's always easy to find people online, so we aren't really focusing too much on that aspect of it.

Let me give you an example of how it works. You see, for years, every time I'd be shopping (usually at Wal-Mart), there would never be any employees nearby, when I needed them. Then, if I finally spotted someone from a distance, they would then turn around a walk the other way! It never failed! So you know what I finally did? I decided that from then on, I was going to "will" that any time I needed someone, there would always be a clerk close by, and easily attained. And it worked!! It was so funny. I marveled at it, and laughed to myself whenever it would happen. Sometimes there would even be two and three of them at a time, within my reach! Of course, there may be 2% of the time when this might not happen, but it's only because there is a good reason for it, so that you may be benefited in ways that you are unaware. So don't worry about it.

I did the same thing with parking places. Now, I almost always get a great spot, and whenever someone is with me in the car, they always say, "Wow! You're lucky. I never get a good parking place." (Now you know why.)

One day I was exiting onto I-20, reminding myself of how much I hated doing it, because it can be stressful and potentially dangerous. So I made up my mind, right then, that no longer would I have to slow down, hoping that someone would be polite and move over so that I could enter the Interstate. (I'm not one to rudely pull out in front of a speeding car!) No, I WANT the runway to be CLEAR for take-off, so that I can speed up and enter like you're supposed to be able to do! Needless to say, I now have the Interstate free and clear, or at least in the lane I'm entering. And I do not have to slow down. When I hit the Interstate, I'm going almost as fast as the people who are already driving on it.

Well, meeladaj, there's no reason why we can't do this same thing, pertaining to positive friends who share similar interests. Instead of paying attention to the discouraging statistics of the natural realm, let's casually and nonchalantly think to ourselves, and shrug, "No matter where I go or what I do, I'm just naturally lucky at attracting positive people, who would like me to be their friend. In fact, they're starting to come to me left and right, out of nowhere, and I think the world is somehow full of them!"

Get the picture?

Then let's do it!

(Come to think of it, the possibilities are endless!)

P. S. - You're always welcome to email me. Just click the envelope icon at the top of my post, and you'll see my email address.

[This message has been edited by SHEANIMA (edited September 10, 2004).]