compassion for yourself and all beings is the key to a good life

 And the other key is gratitude for the good you have in your life.

Like for example, even if you are just alive you can be grateful you are alive and not dead.

If you have relatives and friends still alive you can be grateful like that too.

For example, I'm now 78 years old and most of the people I knew in the 1950s are now dead including all my relatives older than me. My cousins except for two are gone now too. At least 2 of my cousins have passed away since 2000 and another male cousin passed away in a car accident in 1956 when I was 8 years old which helped me to start writing about things to learn to process better what was happening to me and the world. Writing about what was bothering me helped me get a better grip on life (my life especially ever since 1956).

My best friends from age 6 and from junior high and high school passed away in 2006 and in 2011. So, most of the people I knew growing up are gone now. But, I have one cousin who is like a brother to me who also grew up in California and not Seattle where my relatives mostly are from and he and his wife and 3 children and 9 grandchildren are all alive now which is nice too here in California and I have another Cousin who is 89 who is still alive in Washington too.

So, being grateful for your family and friends is useful to your ongoing survival as a human being on earth.

Consider being grateful as a way of having compassion for yourself so you can stay alive for them and they can stay alive for you too. You are a team (your friends and relatives) if you have maintained relationships with them along the way.

It's true people move all over the world and my own family (my children all live in other states mostly now too.

However, then it allows me to go visit them or have them fly here and visit my wife and me too.

So, a part of having compassion for yourself is having gratitude for all the good things in your life.

And having compassion for all others (all other beings large and small) on earth and beyond is the key to full enlightenment too.

And Compassion for All life on earth is the key to all useful and helpful civilization here on earth too.

So, your compassion for yourself and others leads to your enlightenment which also leads to a better civilization for all the life forms on earth and beyond.

By God's Grace