A very close friend of mine, Bud Matkowski, passed away this week. He was a friend that I met whilst studying Native American survival and philosophy 30 years ago in the US. Over the years we stayed in touch with me traveling to visit him (including doing a Vision Quest on his property) and him traveling to Australia to visit me. He came from a working class background and built an incredible log cabin in the woods of Maine before he was diagnosed with Leukaemia in his 60’s and successfully overcame it with a bone marrow transplant.
He was such an insightful person full of amazing wisdom that I made sure to introduce to my children, bringing each of them separately from Australia to spend time with him for a week in the Maine woods (my eldest daughter is his god daughter). One of the things that I enjoyed the most was our long conversations about life. Not just the superficial talks that most of us have with others, but the real deep conversations about how important it is to live our lives and make a difference to those around us.
Bud believed that the world needs more thinkers. Because we are so busy rushing from one thing to the next, many of us get into a pattern of exhaustion, only to realise that we have lost a few months of time that could have been fully lived (and wow doesn’t social media, binging on Netflix and television eat up our time!) When we were trained, many of the Native American elders looked at the western world and identified us as ‘walking coffins of flesh’ because we are so busy doing things that are not important that our souls start to die and not living the life we were meant to.
Parents watch their children grow up and before they know it, they are out of the house and that precious time together is gone. As we grow, we forget the importance of connecting with our parents and elders and those that made such a positive impact on our lives. The reason? We are often too busy to take the time to think and remember who guided us and the conversations we had to help us think about what is truly important.
So when was the last time you had a real thought about life and who the important people are in your life? Are you taking the time to think about your life to ensure you are living the life that you are meant to live, rather than aimlessly drifting in a job or relationship that is not serving you?
When we start to truly think about our life and what we want, we can start manifesting the life that we are supposed to live. Bud was an incredible example of someone that took the time to think and live the life he was supposed to live. I am proud to have called him my friend, but in reality he was my mentor who taught me many things. We need more people like Bud. The world needs more thinkers.
