Living By What Sustains or What Drains — How Do You Live?

After spending more than fifteen years in and out of prison, Jason Knowles decided that after his parole, he was going to do something that gave life instead of taking it. Losing everything that mattered to him made him realize his way of living wasn’t sustaining him. It was draining him. Everyone that he cared about fled from his life because of his actions, choices, and decisions.

He wanted better. So after his parole, he transformed himself into a positive machine programmed to live a sustainable life.

Twenty years later, he was the CEO of his franchise, Fruit Medley, a restaurant that served fruit medleys in smoothies and other fruit-based pastries. He has more than twenty-five stores across the country. He was invited to speak to 35 at-risk youths who were eight months away from leaving the Juvenile Center they had called home for the past five years. He quickly accepted.

He arrived two hours early. He wanted a tour and to see and understand life here. Having been here himself in his teens, he was shocked by how much everything had changed and how dangerous the world had become for youths. Speaking off the record with several of these young men and learning about their lives, he was shocked by how they survived. He aimed to motivate, inspire, encourage, and save lives.

Thirty-five eager minds stared at him as he stood about six feet away on a podium. His heart trembled as he spoke, feeling their pain and fear as he had when he was here too. “Some people live what gives them life. Others live what takes their lives.”

“But how will we know who does what?” a young man in the front row asked, pain in his eyes that Jason could see and feel.

Jason swallowed his pain, coughed a little, then elaborated, “I cheated, lied, schemed, and stole from everyone kind to me. I abused their generosity, mistook it for stupidity, and took advantage of every kind, thoughtful situation to achieve everything I wanted. When I arrived at my destination, I couldn’t maintain the success I’d cheated to get. There was no one there to help me because I had cheated everyone. The ones I turned to stole from me what I’d cheated them out of.

“So, thief from thief, God laugh!” someone said.

Everyone laughed, including Jason.

“I attempted suicide and did time in prison. It was during my incarceration that I realized that the life I was living, I was taking my own life unconsciously.”

“So, you weren’t living what gives life; you were living what takes it,” another young man asked.

“Yes, son,” Jason said with a smile. “I was really living what drains me. I am lucky to be alive because I decided to change. Changing my life by living what sustains me gave me the power to live longer and with what gives life. It gave me the will, power, resources, and reason to help others too. When you live a life that sustains you, you can sustain others and help make our world a better place not only for yourself, but for others. So when you go out into the world, try to live what gives life. Do what sustains life. Don’t live what drains you and takes life, because the life you take and drain will be your own.”

“But it’s not going to be easy,” another juvenile said.

“Life isn’t, son, but living what gives you life and sustains is the safest way to live. But first you must know the tools that give and sustain life and what drains it and takes it,” Jason said, smiling.

All of us consciously and/or unconsciously live what gives life and what takes life. Annelise Lords

Which life are you living?

Thank you for reading this piece. I hope you enjoyed it.