Saturday 6 March 2021

Originally broadcast on CHED radio - Date unknown

I had a young man in my employ who appeared to be headed for a complete breakdown. He progressed to a point where he was just not able to cope with even the most trivial problems. His job, his family responsibilities all became more than he could handle. He was convinced that if he could just get away for a few weeks he’d get squared away and would return refreshed and ready to carry on. I arranged his vacation and he left for Hawaii. When he had been there a week I called him long distance. "How are you Harry?" I enquired. "Not so good, he replied.” "You don't feel any different than you did here, do you Harry," I said. He confessed that he didn't. I tried to explain to him that he had really not escaped from his problems; he had only moved them all to another location. Most of our conflicts in life are not in our jobs or in our family relationships. They are within ourselves. The only real way to escape a problem is not to run from it, but to confront it head on. So many of us attempt to get away from the things we don't want to look at. We take long vacations, drink to excess, and some even resort to narcotics. Yet when the fog clears away, the problem is still there waiting to be dealt with. If problems have you down, do the wise thing. Confront them. It may hurt for a while, but time heals all things and if you tackle problems and go your best against them, you will win the fight and become a much better person.

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