Hi there,
Good morning and happy Sunday to you.

I went to a concert Friday evening. On Saturday I went for a beautiful drive and today I’m going to do the same.

Meanwhile, 22 U.S. veterans committed suicide on Friday, 22 more on Saturday, and 22 more today.

Because that’s the national average.

Every day, 22 men and women are so emotionally traumatized from their wartime experience that ending their life feels like a better option than living.

In other words, more active duty personal die by their own hand than by combat.

And just as heartbreaking are the thousands and thousands of Veterans who are struggling this very moment and on their way to suicide through drug and alcohol abuse.

And then there are the Veterans who are homeless. On any given night, over 300,000 thousand Veterans are either homeless or living in shelters in the United States.

On this Veterans Day weekend I’m incredibly grateful to every Veteran and every family member of every Veteran for their incredible sacrifice so that I can have such a blessed life.

And from the bottom of my heart I am so sorry for all that you’re going through because of our inability to share this planet gracefully with each other.

What are you grateful for on this beautiful Veterans Day weekend?

How DO we stop all this? All this fighting and killing and war?

I don’t know about you but I often feel it’s simply too overwhelming to affect real change – whether it’s dealing with all the wars, or our screwed up political scene, or climate change, or take your pick – but it feels like the game is so rigged and polluted by money, power, and greed that I feel powerless to really do anything.

So I don’t do anything.

Sad but true.

How about you? How do you feel about all this? And what do you do to address the things you believe are horribly wrong with “us”?

Or are you like me, overwhelmed sometimes to the point that it feels impossible to really do anything to fix this mess?

If that’s you then today let’s make a vow together on this Veterans Day – this day honoring incredible courage and sacrifice. Let’s do ONE thing to make this world better, just ONE thing about an issue we feel passionate about supporting.

We can at least do that.

What are you going to do to make this world better today?

Go to our Artistic Family Private Facebook Page and tell me what your issue is and what you did today to make that issue better.

Gratitude.

Compassion.

Forgiveness.

Love.

Kindness.

I believe these qualities are the best of who we are and the whole reason we’re here is to bring forth these qualities in every situation we’re in.

Let’s be that today.
Your friend,
Jim