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Animals adopting animals of other species is not new and does not show morality. It is a biological mechanism that is inherit in animals to sustain the species. In farms this is also done by human contact with animals that are in season or wishing them to come into season. It is very common for sheep to raise cattle and vis versa.

I agree with what you say about aliens, Kolchak.

Even though I have sort of made myself a spokeswoman for Christianity on this forum, I am actually pretty Libertarian about people's religious beliefs. That doesn't mean I personally think all belief systems are equal, but I do recognize that I have no right to force what I think on others. I guess I do think it matters whether there really is a God, or whether we just invent the notion of a god. If there really is one, it would be dangerous to invent something different. But it's true, I can't prove the existence of God to anyone else. As you say, it is ultimately a matter of faith.

Hey, Mau, are you familiar with Christopher Smart's poem to his cat, Jeoffrey? Smart was an 18th-century poet whom most people of his time regarded as a bit looney tunes on the subject of religion. But he wrote this delightful poem to his cat, essentially saying that the cat was actively celebrating God's creation just in his being. It is a part of his longer poem, Jubilate Agno (Rejoice in the Lamb), but the section about the cat is frequently excerpted. I will try to give you a link, but if it doesn't work I have given you enough info already for you to look it up:

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/from-jub ... 8/#content

I was being a little facetious when I said start your own. Although more than a few folks have done just that.

Despite what the politically correct say, this nation was and is founded on Judeo-Christian ethics and morality. Is it perfect? No. Of course not. Perfection doesn't exist here or anywhere else. We are fortunate enough for now, to be living somewhere we have the right to worship or not to worship as we see fit. The problem lies when guys in group A tells the folks in group B that they must accept the A way of thinking or else.

Again, we have the politically correct saying that group A; in this case that being Christians, are forcing themselves on those not Christian. That is simply a lie. An attempt by a far left leaning news media, with a clear political and social agenda to push their own feeble minded and academically challenged belief system, that in the end has the sole and stated goal of destroying the Christian Dogma that has been the basis of western thought and enlightenment for millennia. Once again it is not perfect, but at least it attempts to give and preach a belief that requires the individual to accept responsibility and to accept the fact that there are limitations. That morality is not subjective. The "if it feels good, do it" has never worked and those that preach that are hypocrites themselves, because all systems require some restraint and thought before action.

The attack on Christianity from Islamic fundamentalist is obvious and requires little in way of response. The real attack on Christianity is from westerners who think they are too deep, and too cool and too sophisticated to be weighed down by those insipid bible thumping hillbilly's.

I was young once and I laughed at religion and still have somethings I'm not too cool on. I do not attend church on a regular basis, and being Roman Catholic I must deal with the problems of pedophile priests, the Inquisition and Vatican support of the Nazi's during WWII.

Those were acts perpetrated by individuals. Yes they were people in position of power and trust, and those are the people we are hurt the most by because they use their status and power to get what they want and are hypocrites to the people the are charged with caring for and sheparding.

Well, here is another Spoiler Alert. That has been going on since man first started to organize things and develop ways to control social order and human behavior. What ever group you join or what ever belief system you adopt, you will find people like that. Grow up and get over it!

Man will always find ways to screw things up. That doesn't mean you throw the baby out with the bathwater and totally turn your back on what is otherwise a good idea. Instead you look for the inherent good that the Dogma preaches and take into account that you don't have to be like the bad person in your group.

Religion is not about you finding a perfect fitting place to go and worship. You'll be looking for ten lifetimes and never find what you're wanting. But if you stop and think, you might just find what you really need.

Oh, 100% agreement with you on this.

I actually read around in several religious systems when I was young. I was curious to understand how people around the world had tackled the Big Questions, which is what I think all religions try to do. Ultimately I came back to Christianity because I didn't find anything better anywhere else. Yeah, all human systems are going to get screwed up from time to time. That's just what we do.

For this forum I like the example of Salem Massachusetts to show how damaging the leftist antichristian belief systems go to laugh and degrade people of faith. Look at the number of innocent men and women were put to death for being called witches. None were, and since then Salem has been shown how Christian's practice religious intolerance and murder people for selfish reasons.

So today how do they illustrate this dark time? Well Salem has the largest population of witches per capita than anywhere in the country. Witches are celebrated and you can see their image everywhere. The Salem police department even has a witch on their uniforms.

What do you think the innocent people who where killed for crimes they were guiltless of would think if they came back today and saw what their town had become?

But the politically correct of the left don't see the insult, irony or hypocrisy, because to them it's okay, because Christians are the only group its okay to persecute.

You are absolutely right Kolchak. Just look what is happening to the coptic Christians in Egypt. And there is virtually no reporting of it.

The persecution of Christians in other countries is scary, really. The world is not that big a place anymore. What happens in one place can happen here, too.

One of my sons has a T-shirt with a cross on it that reads, "This symbol is illegal in [I forget how many, maybe 137? something like that] countries." No, there is not enough reporting about this. Unless you listen to Conservative radio or Christian TV broadcasts, you never hear of it.

There is certainly a lot of ideas being shared here! Sorry for not responding immediately, I've been busy with a lot of other projects. College is over but I'm still pretty busy! There is always something to do it seems.

Anyway, I do not wish to derail the thread. I'll try to address everyone's ideas at once but I might miss a few details.

Kolchak you have a lot of good points. The main thing I want to address is the thing with animals adopting other animals of different species. One might be able to argue that humans themselves practice this with many different species of animals. We rescue kittens and puppies all the time along with numerous other animals. I know you're a Police Officer so I am wondering if you've ever been called to rescue an animal? Although that might be more something the local Fire Department does. Even so, plenty of civilians do this as well. The benefit we get out of this is the love and companionship of the animal that's rescued, but it's hardly out of survival for my own species, but for the species that has been rescued. I find there is something very noble about an animal taking up the life of another. Yet there are some species who take advantage of this since a species of bird will often lay it's eggs in another bird specie's nest, forcing the host species to raise it's young and it does none of the work. As a result, the host species own offspring often die. This isn't morality in my opinion. It's morality when an animal voluntarily takes up the life of an offspring of another species. And if it's not morality, at the very least I'd call it kindness and love. Animals are capable of this to at least some degree, and this is why I think animals have a soul; at least this is particularly true of mammals and birds. To call it simply survival makes no sense to me. It's just like when people say that morality comes about as a survival mechanism when the very act of morality often contradicts survival. Sometimes it involves self sacrifice which in turn is a huge principle of Christianity. I suppose one might say that when a mother gives up her life for her child it's ensuring the survival of the next generation; but if she dies she cannot have any more children. If the mother dies alone without someone else to raise the child, the child will die as well. Granted, I'm opting out of having children. I feel that my knowledge is far more important to pass on than my genes and I regard our cats as our kids.

I definitely agree with you on the aliens part. They could be smart. They could be moral or amoral. But we simply don't know because we haven't encountered any. It might be that aliens on planet A might be moral, while the aliens on planet B might be amoral. Yet both are pretty intelligent. Maybe it depends on how they evolved, what their culture might be like. One can only speculate. I am confident that any life out there would have to be somewhat different than Earth's; although convergent Evolution may also apply to other planets. It's hard to say for sure. We won't know until we discover other life out there. I think it'll be more likely that we discover aliens that are more primitive than us though considering if they were more technologically advanced, they haven't attempted contact with humans. The way I see it; who knows. I don't exactly trust the Government but I don't exactly trust Conspiracy theorists either. Both sides are subject to the burden of proof. But I do think if there was a national or even a Global threat, the Governments of the world, the UN and such would have a responsibility to inform the public so that proper precautions can be taken to ensure our survival. There are good and bad people in every culture, every race, both genders, and regardless of one's economic status and whether or not they participate in Government affairs or are a civilian. The media does exploit mostly the bad however.

Thanks for sharing the poem Murf, it was quite interesting and puts into perspective what it means to be a cat owner. Too many times people regard cats as evil, but if there is a God one has to remember God made cats too!

Murf what you say makes sense. There are some who think either there aren't any aliens out there, or that salvation wouldn't apply to them and they'd have no souls. I think this is hog wash of course because I believe the energy that encompasses the soul is in all living things, and that the soul is in all living things, at least ones that have a brain and spinal cord anyway as I believe the brain and spinal cord serve as a sort of computer that uploads the soul like a biological interface, I'm not sure about plants. Maybe they do; I'm not sure. If there is a God then who are we to say that his creativity is limited to our own planet? So I agree with you there, at least assuming there is a God anyway. Plus scientific research has pinpointed where specific "habitable" zones are in a star. One day our own Earth will no longer be in the habitable zone and the Earth will be burned up from our star's expansion. Humans will probably have died off before that even happens though, but if they haven't then hopefully space age technology will save us. But if there is a God; most Christians believe God will bring Jesus back before then and all the faithful Christians will be placed in a New Heaven and a New Earth. I agree, I think there has to be life out there regardless if God exists or not. Life itself is a miracle that should be cherished. But I would be afraid if that life is out to destroy us. I think the likelihood however is that we'd find life that is either less developed than we are technology wise, or if they are more developed then hopefully they have overcome many of the hurdles of civilization and have become more tolerant as they have become more intelligent. Most movies like portraying aliens as destructive and wanting nothing more than to destroy humans, but I think it's more likely they either don't know about us, or think we're too primitive to deal with. Then there's people who believe we were visited by aliens already considering the advancements of civilizations like the mayans, or the "computer" found in an Ancient greek civilization that shouldn't even belong there in that time period. This leads us to either believe we were visited by aliens at one time, or maybe humans were more advanced back then than we like to give our ancestors credit for. You can find it here: http://nypost.com/2014/11/29/antikyther ... you-think/

To be fair Murf, we do our own discrimination of other religions in our own country, despite the fact that our country is supposed to support freedom of religion. Plus our country isn't even close to being the best place to be if one is female. Gender discrimination and Racism still go on today and I find that pretty sad. I do not believe one should discrimination based on race, gender or religion as long as that religion isn't harming anyone. People can argue that say, Islam is a violent religion but I think that depends on what religious sect one practices. It's not different than Christianity as the Quran can be taken out of context just as much as the Bible or even the Torah.

In the end; it may not matter what one believes. Someone is going to be discriminated against somewhere regardless of the belief.

Now getting back to the topic of life after death; I did find some interesting theories on the subject. I'm more inclined to believe one than the other; but perhaps under different circumstances.

The one I might be inclined to agree with is the one where we're reborn in another reality. We're still the same person, still born in the same time period, but we make slightly different decisions in life that affect our overall lifestyle. Now what they try to say is that the soul simply migrates to another reality upon death, and you're left off at the same point where you died in one reality without knowing that you actually died. So if I were to die right now, I'd wake up in another reality the same age as if nothing happened, except maybe feeling some pain as an after effect. The problem with this theory is that everyone always grows old and time continues to move forward. So how can one be transferred indefinitely? So I think what happens is that we simply start over at the point of birth. Or perhaps we'd enter a new reincarnated state in this reality. We'd go through all the possible incarnations of this reality, then we start at point 0 in a new reality and so on. I'm not entirely sure if this is what I believe; but I think that's what makes the most sense instead of just restarting where you left off. Instead, I do think when people experience severe pain for no reason, or maybe have an NDE, they may have experienced the death of an alternate reality counterpart since I think we are connected with these alternate selves.

I am still inclined to think that we are reincarnated in order to better ourselves before we're supposed to ascend to a higher plane of existence though. But at the same time, I do think there is such a thing as alternate realities. Every decision made creates a ripple in the water that branches out. I think the universe is like that. Therefore the number of realities out there is infinite. Remember our discussion about what would have happened if the South won the Civil War? That very well could have happened in an alternate universe. But even something as simple as deciding to stop at Mcdonalds or Burger King can affect a shift in reality. Does the cat decide to chase the mouse today or not? Another decision. So I don't think it's just us humans that affect it either. Maybe a meteor crashed in one reality or maybe it didn't in another. Maybe in one reality Hurricane Katrina didn't happen. Maybe 9/11 never happened. Maybe the Nazis won WWII in one reality and the Russians won the Cold War in another. There's so many possibilities, and even among those possibilities there are many more branched out of those.

Then there's one theory that I think is almost as scary as ceasing to exist. It's called the "Natural Afterlife." It's basically going along the lines that when we die we simply enter a dreamlike state; except we are in that dream forever since time has literally stopped for us at that point. But for some people they might become trapped in a nightmare and that's what they experience as Hell. But at the same time what we experience as Heaven is a dream where we have our own personal interpretation of it. Personally I like the state of being awake; although some dreams I like there are too many that are just way too bizarre for me to want to be trapped in one forever after death. Although this may make some sense since the Bible says we're "sleeping" when we die. But I'm not real crazy about this idea, or the waking up at the same age idea. I think I'd be OK with the idea of waking up at the time of birth though and starting over, but not entirely living the same life. Our past lives could influence the decisions we make in our own reality that we're in right now; so it's with hope that we don't make the same mistakes. It's another chance.

That's a provocative post, Mau, and I don't have time to do it justice right now. To take your last point first, I haven't read as widely in theories of reincarnation as you have done. Back when I did read in that area, the goal of it all seemed to be some kind of improvement of the soul, until it became fit for Nirvana, which I took to be the Eastern version of heaven. What I didn't like about Nirvana was that the soul lost its identity when it entered that state--it merged with some kind of cosmic consciousness. That's just not appealing to me, although I have known people who liked the idea. I returned to Christianity because, in the long run, that seemed to be the religion that put most emphasis on the importance of the individual. (I think Judaism does that, too, since Christianity developed from Judaism and doesn't really contradict it. But I do think Christianity makes these ideas more explicit.) Of course I am talking now about what I myself find appealing, rather than what I know to be factually true. I guess we will all find out "the truth" after we are dead.

I think you are right when you say that "morality" has to be more than a survival mechanism, since differentiating between right and wrong, and choosing to do right, is often costly to the individual who makes that choice. I privately doubt that animals are conscious of choosing between right and wrong, which means that I don't assign moral categories to them. They certainly are capable of affection, and I have had at least one pet (a cat) who seemed to me to be able to make connections between cause and effect, at least in a limited way. I really like my husband's definition, that being human means being able to imagine a future different from the present. I think this is the key difference between people and the animals they love. However, I cannot go along with those who say animals have no souls and won't be in heaven. I cannot fathom a loving God who wouldn't love the animals He had made even more than I do. And then, there is the fact that every image of paradise in the Bible has animals in it. Maybe this comes back to that "need to know" thing--the Bible doesn't tell us about what happens to animals because we don't need to know that part. Maybe, because they aren't given the responsibility of moral choice, they are just there as a matter of course.

I don't really have time this morning to respond adequately to your point that our own country is guilty of religious intolerance and that women have a worse position here than elsewhere. In short, I disagree with this statement, although I recognize that we don't yet live in heaven, so there are imperfections in our system and society, too. But we aren't, for example, beheading Muslims in our society, whereas there are places in the Middle East where that is happening on a large scale to Christians. (There was even one incident of a Muslim man's beheading a Christian woman here in the States, I think in Oklahoma City, though I'd have to look that news story up again. It happened a year or so back.) Of course most Muslims would never dream of doing this sort of thing, but the fact remains that such crimes are happening right now in the name of Islam. I do think more moderate Muslims have a responsibility (a moral choice, as we were discussing above) to object when these things happen. They aren't being as vocal as I think they could be.

Ooops! Out of time.

Okay Mau there are a couple of issues we need to address here. You are confusing the acts of animals with the acts of humans. Yes there are some animals who take advantage of things like birds laying their eggs in a nest of a different species and having that species raise it. There is nothing moral about it. First it may be a different species, but it is still a bird. A bird is a bird.

Then among humans we have women bearing children from multiple partners, and nobody raising them. They rely on government assistance and demand that others pay the bill for their actions. Their childs education, medical and social well being are of no concern to them, they think the government owes them a living. The government btw...is your and mines tax dollars. These humans, acted like animals without thinking, but they do have the ability to stop, and think and reason. They simply choose not to. Animals don't have that choice. That's what makes it more sad and pathetic among humans. We're supposed to know better.

You wouldn't have a grizzly bear raising the offspring of a duck. It just doesn't happen in the wild. The only places we see such interaction is when humans get involved and you see tame or semi tame animals rescued from the wild and with human intervention and human guidance we then see things like a baby rhino playing with a baby giraffe. The animals are young and at that young age can bond to a different species. The drawback is those animals can never be returned to the wild because they have spent all their time around humans and have lost their natural fear. It is fear and wild instinct that keep the animals safe. With that gone, they can't survive on their own.

Morality and survival among humans. I've seen great acts of heroism in battle. Men have risked their lives to save others. There is no higher moral that that. Some of those men die, that others could live. I've been there and seen it with my own eyes. I simply can't see an animal possess the same traits. In the movie Bambi, Bambi's mother dies to save Bambi. In the real world, Bambi's mother would have left Bambi to die and gotten the heck out of there.

Sorry, but that is the real and honest truth.

But also please remember at the end of the day, if a man must choose between the life of his family or the life of another family, you can be 100% certain that he is going to choose his family. Morality isn't even a question in this case.

Mau, a lot of what you speak of is in the abstract. In the real world. Under real conditions, you don't have time to think of what your karma will be if you don't chose wisely. Also in the real world, the chances of you ever having to deal with this issue is between none and not at all. In other words you're worrying about the wrong thing.

Who cares if aliens are real or not? How does this affect our daily lives? Who cares what aliens think? Do you have to deal with aliens on a regular basis? Is this an issue we need to address and concern ourselves with now?

Who cares about reincarnation? Whether we come back or not is irrelevant. Worry about you and your life now, not what might or might not happen in the future after you're gone! Once again. Don't worry about the wrong thing.

Shouldn't we be more concerned with putting food on the table? Shouldn't we be more concerned with living our lives to the fullest? Shouldn't we be doing things to improve ourselves? We hear people babbling how we need to make things better. If you spend time working on yourself and making you a better person, haven't you done your part in making things better?

There's nothing wrong with escapism, as long as you don't do it all the time. You can escape a lot of things, but you can never escape yourself. There's nothing wrong with having an open mind. But don't let it be so open that your brain falls out.

I just realized I went way too overboard with this. I'm sorry guys. I really think I have an unhealthy obsession with death. x_x You all have good points. Funny part is my boyfriend tells me I should just enjoy life to the fullest as well.
Murf you are right in that we'll find out when we get there.

I'm sorry if I offended/annoyed anyone here. I know I get a little too aggressive in debates sometimes. x_x It's one of my downfalls that I need to work on.

I'm not at all offended by anything you have posted, Mau. I also don't think it's escapist to ponder what might happen after we die. I think that is human nature, and probably one of the many things that distinguish us from animals, actually. I do agree with Kolchak (and your boyfriend) that you need to guard against spending too much of your precious time and energy on fears about death and the afterlife. You strike me as a very intelligent young woman with a sweet disposition. From what you have told us, it sounds as if there is a lot that's good in your life. Just try to keep the anxieties about mortality in perspective.

About religious belief--which was the original topic of this thread, I think--to some extent, this, too, is a matter of deliberate choice. I mean, not all of us get the "Road to Damascus" experience of conversion, where we feel we are directly confronted by God. For me it was way more gradual. I had my first child in my mid-30s, and I realized I had to teach him something to help the world make sense. I decided to teach him Christianity because it was the religious tradition on both sides of our family. I wasn't sure how much I believed it, but I didn't know anything better. So I went with that. After so many years of taking first him and then his younger siblings to church, and teaching them about the faith and reading the Bible, a funny thing happened. I started believing in it more myself. I mean, I could elaborate more than this, because there have been a couple of times when I now feel I was directly confronted. But my point is, you can grow into belief. It doesn't always come to you in a flash. Sometimes the head chooses before the heart knows. And I suppose the opposite is also possible.

Murf you're definitely right; I just felt like I might have treaded a little too far considering I can get a little aggressive at times in debates. The main thing for me is learning to relax. It's difficult when my mind is constantly whirling and doesn't stop. Often I become too fixated on things and if I can't address them immediately I start to stress about it. At the same time I have a hard time focusing on one thing at a time; which could be why my story isn't finished yet.

Thanks for the kind compliments though Murf. When I was younger I didn't think of myself as intelligent. Quite the opposite actually. Despite what people say about my art, my book, my achievements at school I still have a difficult time believing I'm capable of these things. I put myself down a lot and have a buzzing mix of depression and anxiety. My depression isn't nearly as bad as it was when I was younger and my boyfriend helps me keep in higher spirits. The problem is death isn't the only thing I tend to fixate on. I have a harder time focusing on the present than I do on the past and the future. But that brings me to an interesting epiphany; maybe there's a sort of wisdom in the fact that animals only seem to care about the present. Maybe if there's any truth to the Bible is that the real forbidden fruit is knowing the past and future. On an evolutionary standpoint; that would also make sense. Maybe the purpose of animals is to keep us focused on the present. Certainly knowledge about the future can be useful for planning things; but we can never quite have control over everything that will happen. Bad weather might strike, maybe there's a death in the family, maybe a natural disaster of some kind. We just never really know. That brings me to the point that death can happen at any time. I could drop dead; I could walk outside and a truck could topple over going down the road and hit me; I could get attacked by a bear; there's a number of things that could happen. But worrying about it doesn't make death go away, it really causes unnecessary stress. Something I really need to learn to deal with. I'm almost 30 now; and while that doesn't seem like a very old age I have to baffle myself at just how the years flew by in my 20's. My teen years and early 20's especially were depressing. Plus I've struggled to find the job I'd always wanted. But then it clicked that teaching seemed right; and I was right when I did my observations. It's like a realization that you know what you were meant to do in life; and right in time for my 30's to start. So upon the cusp of this new chapter, and new decade in my life knowing I'm going in the right direction I think things are going to be ok. The real struggle is letting go of my past. Thank goodness I have a very loving and supporting boyfriend. My cats are also there for me in many ways as well, and I think when I stress about the future or the past; they just look up at me like "hey, what are you stressing about? Just pet me already!"

I think it is interesting that having children really changed your life in so many ways, especially how teaching them brought you back into Christianity. Studying biology actually helped me realize that life is far too complex to have happened on it's own for sure. I think there has to be something at work. Funny thing is a lot of people turn away from believing in a God when they study Biology; but me I'm not sure. I think there may be some truth in almost every religion; but I see them as pieces of a puzzle that need to be put together.

One thing about reincarnation that is a little interesting is that some Jews believe in it. It's actually amazing how different their belief in the afterlife is compared to most Christian schools of thought. But one thing that is certain is that they do good works now because they know it will benefit them now. They aren't focused on the afterlife; but on the present. I actually like their theology on the afterlife. One thing I did want to say though is that I think maybe there is a Heaven as well; but it takes several lives to get there. You don't lose your individuality either. So maybe my belief combines Eastern and Western thoughts in some ways; and I'm finding Shamanism to be rather fascinating as well.

Maybe you're right about the head knowing before the heart knows. In the mean time, I'm just going to keep trying to put the pieces of the puzzle together; and at the same time try not to stress out over what we find. When death knocks on the door, I'll find out then. Hopefully death won't visit me until I'm at least 100. I want to be a centenarian.

Of course; it's easier said than done. I need to learn to relax. My boyfriend tells me that all the time. He doesn't worry about death like I do. Although he is a fan of the grim reaper.

No harm done Mau. You didn't offend anybody.

As Murph said you are an intelligent and bright lady. As you get older and spend a little more time exploring the world, you'll realize that even if you can't find a specific answer to a specific question, it won't bug you as much, because in the real world we don't always find an answer. You're not alone and it happens to all of us. It's just as you gain a bit in the life experience department, you come to understand that somethings are beyond our control and that's how it is with every single one of us. We might not be able to change the entire world, but we can help do our best in the tiny corner we inhabit.

You're not the only person who focuses on the past and worries about the future. We all do. If I could go back in time and change some things, I'd do it in a heartbeat!

The future is going to get here no matter what and don't get yourself stressed out by thinking about it all the time. We all have plans for the future and we are all on a road to get there. Some of us will be driven to the point that we work and work and stay on one path and never deviate until we achieve whatever future goal we've set for ourselves. Others may take a little longer and take a more scenic route and stop along the way to try and experience new things. Others might realize they are on the wrong road and change direction and go in another direction. Yet again, some folks might sell their car and be happy and content with where they are.

There's no right answer. You have to examine what's right for your heart as wall as what's logical in your mind. Sometimes you choose logic. Sometimes you follow your heart. It all boils down to choices and happiness. In life you are offered plenty of chances. It's up to you to decide which are the chances you want to take.

Sooner or later we all die. I've been shot. I've been stabbed. I've been in terrible car wrecks. I was the sole survivor of a plane crash and I spent almost a month in a coma following my run in with an improvised explosive device when I was in Afghanistan. I had to learn to walk all over again. And of course I have taken more than one human life. This was the path I've chosen for my life. My wife is a very special woman to have put up with my mess. I'm very lucky in that respect.

You're lucky too. You will never have to worry about going through things like I did because your path will be different from mine. Your life is precious. And not just to you. You have strength in your boyfriend and knowing that he will be there for you and you will always be there for him. None of us can go through life alone. We all need someone. Depression follows all of us from time to time. But just like drugs and alcohol abuse, depression can be overcome. Each day is a day to rejoice in what you have and in planning your future with someone you love. The future is yours to make, and depression is a choice. Choose not to let it control your life. You have way too much to live for and look forward to in your exciting and happy future.