Be!

By Peter F. Fox

Uncover a roadmap to a happier, healthier, more successful life. The author not only asks soul-searching questions, but also offers concrete solutions around the central theme ... Love is the absolute formal norm. He masterfully weaves this into day to day realities, experiences and challenges we all face. Broaden perspective and gain fresh insight into everyone’s deepest need.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Peter F. Fox
• Release date: Nov 26, 2012
• ISBN: 9781301089550

Book preview

PREFACE

For several months prior to January 29, 1979, I’d ignored some occasional difficulty swallowing food.

The 29th had been a particularly good day and I came home from work to a nice surprise. My wife, Barbara, had grilled some steaks and Barb and I and our two children sat down to another of Barb’s great meals.

I went right to the steak, but the first swallow stuck on the way down. I felt like I had a golf ball lodged just below my throat.

I was able to breathe and talk and I quickly decided to try to flush the food down with water. As I began to drink, the water filled my breathing passages instead. I was drowning. I went over to the kitchen sink to try and cough-up the obstruction, but things began to go black. I felt Barb’s arms below my breastbone and with one hard pull she caused the water to be released from my airways.

I could breathe and talk, but the piece of steak was still stuck and I was getting more uncomfortable by the minute.

Barb called for an ambulance.

Cathy Archambault, a neighbor and paramedic, heard the call on her radio and rushed over to help. Cathy accompanied us on the trip to the hospital.

Barb’s boss, Louis Olore, M.D., had arranged for Joel Garsten, M.D., a Gastroenterologist, to meet me at the Emergency Room. Dr. Garsten proceeded to dislodge the obstruction and in the process took some biopsies of my esophagus and stomach.

The biopsies were negative, but Dr. Garsten’s diagnosis indicated the lower two-thirds of my esophagus looked bad. Subsequent tests indicated that my esophagus wasn’t propelling the food down to my stomach. Everything had been going down by gravity.

Through diet, medication and exercise (and prayers) I returned to full health in a remarkably short time.

For a few months prior to this incident, I was at a time in my life when I had been thinking often about life and about what was at the core of the positives (and negatives) in my life … but I wasn’t translating my thoughts to positive action. The choking incident provided the impetus to get off the dime.

Around the time of the choking incident, I had a profound and very, very deep insight for living … i.e. selfless, self-giving love is at the core of everything good and positive in life.

No doubt many others have reached this conclusion long before me.

In interacting with folks through the years and in observing both the good and bad example of others, I came to the realization that love really is the absolute formal norm and that everything positive, all goodness, is an outgrowth of loving others.

This then is the central theme of what I have written in BE!

BE! … is a collection of brief essays about life. It began as my own challenge to live my life more fully. As my friend, Bob Filippone, often says, Life’s not a dress rehearsal.

The research for BE! consists of my experiences with some terrific folks … the wonderful models in my life … family, friends, colleagues and others.

In putting this book together, I realized that many of us think similar thoughts about love, happiness, togetherness, well-being, faith in God, etc., and so many of us readily translate our good intentions into good actions in our personal, family, work and social lives.

When I wrote BE! … I accepted (not mastered) the challenges I presented at that time.

In 2012 (as I got into rewriting BE!) I thought about how acceptance of the challenges I presented in the 1980s markedly improved the quality of my life, my relationships and my successes through the years.

In sharing this with you, I hope BE! will help you experience your existence more fully … and that you’ll feel more, see more, love more and be loved more … and that you’ll experience more happiness, be healthier and more successful … and grasp newness of life.

I’ve dedicated BE! to a real life-saver, my wife, Barbara.

BE … to have existence, truth, reality …

Most of us find we can’t always live the ideal. That’s reality.

Life’s always a doughnut hole. But we can fill the empty center with faith, which can lead us to hope, which can lead us to love.

Never despair.

Never give up hope.

At one time or another, we all find ourselves burdened with past troubles, future worries and the challenges and uncertainties inherent in life’s journey.

Winter is followed by Spring, clouds and rain are followed by sunshine. These events happen all the time in nature. They happen in life too.

I hope BE! brings you more hope, growth and a little more sunshine.

Let’s begin our journey by being alive …

BE ALIVE

Life’s experiences can guide us to greater good.

We’re life for one another.

Today you received the perfect gift … the gift of life.

Our culture is death-denying. At times, we live like we’ll be here forever. Today … this present moment of your life … is all you have. You have no stake in the tomorrows yet to come.

Do you live your present moments fully?

Do you doubt the value of your life?

Your life is the process of you becoming.

We’re life for each other.

Life is love. Living is loving … loving others. Life is a process of conversion to truth and goodness. Be patient with life. Life’s a journey, not a destination.

Love yourself, love your questions and love others … today! Loving … joyful and generous living … fulfills our two greatest and deepest needs …

• the need to love … and

• the need to be loved.

Let your life reflect hope.

Today you have a new opportunity …

• to start fresh

• to begin again

• to make good choices freely

• to offer others you

• to bring out good in others

• to appreciate the great beauty of nature

• to search for more knowledge, wisdom and truth

• to risk.

Make today a good day …

• Praise others generously

• Listen patiently

• Keep your promises

• Get to know yourself better