My regret that I could have done differently was to never start to smoke Pot. Had I not done that as a teenager, my entire life would have been different. Now here's why this may indeed belong on a spirituality board. I had started to do some drinking when I was 14. By the time I was 15 the idea of smoking Pot had come into my mind. I discussed it with friends, and with a female older cousin I spent time with. Right now I can see me and her, in my mind's eye, walking and talking about this. When I was 15 I wasn't a spiritual kid. I now know this was a message from God. How it was delivered to me I don't know, and it doesn't matter. I spent well over 1 year debating on whether or not to smoke Pot, before I ever did it. Yes, I used to think a LOT and I still do. But here is what I used to think, and being a spiritually dumb kid, from a family of even spiritually dumber people, no one ever thought to tell me this could have been a message from God. Here is the thought.

"But suppose I do smoke Pot, and suppose it does mess up my mind and it does it in such a way that I don't know it or realize it. And I waste my whole life doing that. Until I finally quit when I'm an old man. And only then will I be able to see I wasted my life on it".

Well, I didn't quit as an old man, I was 50 when I quit. But every word of that came to pass. At 15 and 16 I was raised catholic and I had a nominal belief in God. I knew there were angels, and I figured it's true that they come to earth and try to help us and bring us messages and knowledge from God. I was taught this and I believed it. And this message that I just quoted came to me 1 too many times. Just think, that was 43 years ago, and I still remember it almost word for word, as well as where I was and what I was doing when it 1st came to me. And it all happened. Obviously it was a message from God, a warning and I failed to heed it.

I guess I'm posting this because if anyone is reading this, especially a young person, and you are faced with a possible life changing choice, whatever it may be, and you are getting something that keeps coming to you, as a warning, and you don't like it because it's not what you want to do. Think about me and this message I received. It was true. I regret not heeding it.

Good thread. I'm glad I read it.

Jack