DAKTARI WITHOUT BORDERS
I am a daktari without borders.
I am not sure when and where borders disappeared from my mind, but sometime in the last quarter century, I became a citizen of the world. Wherever I am on planet earth, I feel at home in my borderless world.
Animals do just fine without borders, and most people do pretty good as well.
Sometimes I get the feeling that borders are fictional boundaries created by the rich and powerful to maintain their power and wealth.
One of the best things about sailing on the ocean is the absence of visible borders.
The rich and powerful have not yet figured out a way to divide the ocean into parcels that they can sell, tax, regulate, and go to war to defend.
One of the reasons I like Land Rovers and sailboats so much is they fit nicely in my borderless world.
Billionaires don't like worlds without borders.
They like to puchase large tracts of land on which they can build high walls and place barbed wire fences to exclude people like me.
When I lived in Arabia, I spent the weekends exploring and camping in the desert.
For the first ten years, we had free access to the desert.
Then it became fashionable for billionaires to build palaces in the desert, and suddenly high walls and barbed wire fences started to appear.
We had to go deeper into the desert if we wanted to live in our borderless world.
The desert bedouins are different than the rich and famous.
They live in a borderless world, and they are not particularly fond of high walls and fences.
Bedouins do not own land. They share it with other members of their family and tribe. They move their tents and flocks with the seasons.
I confess I like bedouins a great deal. They are kind and generous people who live a simple life.
Wherever I sailed around the world, I continually met people who had simple pleasures and a great life. Although they didn't have much money, a complicated lifestyle, or lots of things, they did have contentment.
Throughout our circumnavigation, there was a positive correlation between a simple life and contentment.
When I returned to "uncivilization" in the rich countries, people were consumed by the cost of living high, and contentment was in short supply.
Several times in my life, I almost succumbed to the Gospel of More. You know what I mean.
More is better, and the person who dies with the most toys wins.
Its victims give free reign to desire; they spend their lives chasing after everything that does not satisfy. Only at the end of their life do they realize more is actually less, because more chases contentment out of their heart.
Of course, this may all be sour grapes. After all, I'm not rich in the things of this world.
My pile of dollars is fairly small, and in the acquisitions department, I didn't end up with a mountain of things; I have only a small mound to stand on.
If you look under my mattress, you won't find a stash of cash. Instead, you will only find contentment.
Now that I'm back at work in "uncivilization", there's a certain malaise in my life.
I'm treading water in a sea of discontent, and all of the things I didn't have or need a few months ago are now part of my life. I have fallen off Exit Only, and I want to get back on board.
The other day, I was talking to a USED LIFE SALESMAN. He told me I could be rich and famous if I bought what he was selling. All I had to do to was make equal monthly payments of all the contentment I have in my heart. He gave me his personal guarantee I would have an endless supply of cash and piles of stuff for my personal enjoyment.
I distrust USED LIFE SALESMEN and their promises of wealth and fame. I'm not buying what they are selling. Furthermore, contentment can't be purchased at any price.
I'll pitch my tent with the unrich and unfamous, and together we will raise our glass of contentment and toast our life without borders.
AND THAT'S ALL I HAVE TO SAY ABOUT THAT.
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CLASSIC BLOGS FROM DR. DAVE
Many times I felt like I had taken things to the limit, but on further examination, it was clear I simply had enough. I was done and was unwilling to do whatever it takes to continue. Hitting the wall of absolute limits has never been a problem. The envelope of possibility is infintely large, and the likelihood of encountering absolute limits is infinitesimally small. There are no limits. There are only limiting beliefs.
In the grand scheme of things, my grand schemes seem fairly insignificant. In a global sense it's easy to feel as if my life counts for nothing, or at most, counts for little. When someone tells me that I shouldn't be doing things that are important to me, and that I'm wasting my life, they are really saying that my dreams don't count in their scheme of things.
The envelope of possibility is infintely large, and the likelihood of encountering absolute limits is infinitesimally small. Although the envelope of possibility is exceedingly large, it is equally true on a personal level the envelope of possibility is only as big as you believe it to be.
When my life is over and on judgment day I stand in the final line up with all the rest, I hope millions of people can point their finger at me, pick me out of the line up, and say, "He's the one. That's definitely him. He's different from the rest. He didn't conform, and he is guilty of living his dreams.
Everything is a miracle, and every day you are totally immersed in the miraculous. From the top of your head to the tip of your toes, you are a miracle. From the day of your birth until the day of your death, your cup overflows with the miraculous. Don't trade the miraculous for the merely clever!
You are never safe from negation. Unchecked negativity can rapidly flush the achievements of a lifetime down the drain. If you ever reach your dreams, it will be because you stopped listening to the voice of fear and negation. You stopped looking at your limitations and stopped constructing barriers that exist only in your mind.
I could write an entire book called, "Things I Feared That Never Happened," and follow that up with a second book entitled, "I Feared The Wrong Things." Almost always, fear is a waste of time. Most of the things you fear will never happen, and you fear the wrong things. When the hobglobins of fear start dancing in your mind, it's time to refocus on other things. Learn how to squelch the voice of fear with a positive focus!
For me, the dream is all about adventure, freedom, and being really alive. Although I like seeing the sights wherever we go, I think it's the sense of adventure coupled with the freedom to do what I want to do with my life, seasoned with a pinch of adrenalin that makes it all worthwhile.
The first step in moving toward your dreams is to doubt your limits. Once you doubt your limits, it's almost as if you are born again. You get an entirely new life with radically different rules of engagement. You enter the Promised Land of Imagine, Believe, and Receive. I know this to be true because I have been there.
