I used to think that taking time for myself was foolish, frivolous, and wasting time on nothing. Nobody is everybody and everybody is someone. What I cannot stress enough is taking time to breathe deeply with no one hearing you sigh, drinking good red wine, making lewd comments about gorgeous younger men under your breath, and most of all, listening to music of your choice. Jeff Buckley makes me almost gasp for air and he will be dead for twelve years at the end of this month (May). “Moonlight Sonata,” by Beethoven Movement, takes my soul to another place and to a different level. Laura Fagan who now lives in Canada sings “Caruso” in a way that breaks your heart and I could go on and on. Loving yourself for whatever is the most important part of life and so many of us get old and decrepit and wake up and say, “Today is the first day of the rest of my life.”

Something that really impressed me was an interview I saw with Dolly Parton; she has a prayer room in all of her homes and I think even in her office. Successful people maximize their down time and incapsulate meditation to a quick “Thank you, Jesus” but in an out-of-the-way place. What we do is keep things inside us and never share some things, which are not meant to be out there for everyone. Going to a quiet place and sharing it with yourself or a spiritual being is a magnificent burst of freedom that only you yourself know about.

I will never forget being a teenager in the city where I lived most of my life and there was an old Catholic church that was open at certain times during the day. So one day, I could not control myself. I went inside. There were all the statues of Mary and baby Jesus and Jesus on a cross everywhere and it scared me to death and I could not get out fast enough. Having been raised Southern Baptist, any of those statues were idols in the view of the Baptist religion. Needless to say, I know better now and have been able to find peace in any place of worship. Peace comes to us when we are ready for it and I almost think we have no control over that. We just have to know ourselves and accept forgiving ourselves. That is a hard egg to crack.