I got a hard time the other day for saying no.

I got a hard time the other day for saying no. My friend and I were at little gas station about to go hunting in the morning when a man walked up to me and said "Sir, usually I bullshit people to try and get a buck or two, but see the truth is that I just came out of prison and I just wanna to eat." Now hopefully I haven't been labeled a "hard-ass" in your mind yet. See my thing is I was taught along time ago that if you feed a man he will be able to eat now, but if you teach a man to fish he will have food for the rest of his life!

Now my very close friend could see the whole situation, but not hear all that was said. I spoke the guy a bit. Asked him where he was from, when he got out, and what he wanted out of life; basic questions that I asked myself along time ago when I got out of prison. His answers saddened me and our conversation was brief, but it reminded me of the blessings I have in life. It also reminded me of why saying "no" was so very important in my life.

Allot of people in rough situations may or may not know how or why they came to be in whatever situation it is that their dealing with. A vast majority of people coming off of hard times in life have no idea of what direction to take! This, all to often, was the problem in the first place. When life presented them with two choices and while they knew a little about the dangerous one they knew nothing of the other! So even while only knowing a small portion of the danger involved they still chose to go down the path of the dangerous choice instead of saying "NO, I choose to take a chance."

I said no allot of times in life. In most times it was because of some type of danger. It was the same reason why I said no after I got out of prison. I said no to myself about taking the easy way. I said no to working a crappy job, taking the bus all the time, and continuously wanting or hoping for something to happen from nothing! Because you see, if I had said yes, then there was the real danger in life. I would have given up, maybe not then but soon after. Life would have thrown me another curve ball and that would have been it. Something, a bill or some trouble would have sent me over the edge...into drugs, more trouble with the law...suicide. Who knows?

Why am I writing this? Because out of all my mistakes in life none have been repeated. So in saying that some may inquire well then what happened? Why did you choose to do this or to do that? It's because all the while I wanted to make the right choices in life, I just didn't know how! No one educated me according to the choices that I had. No one decided to take the time and help me come up with questions that I could ask myself to help me determine which would be the better decision at the time in my life.

So, in closing that's the hope for this post. I don't know who reads this, if anyone will read this, but if you do and your having trouble deciding between something in life, please let me help. I don't know everything, can't know everything. Yet who ever the smartest man on earth may be he didn't get there alone! No one has to! If I don't know the answer I'll find it for you, or at least show you some awesome techniques as to how to go about finding out yourself!

Take care everyone!