Of all the elders I’ve met over the years, this guy in the photo is the most mystical.

Last month, my brother called me excitedly, “David I just got back from a cactus show and met this guy…he’s 94…he has the most amazing cactus collection….…you have to meet him!!!!!”

Don’t feel badly because I didn’t know either.

But cacti are very special, very powerful, and very mystical.

My brother started collecting and planting cacti all over his house, and he goes to these cactus shows….constantly!

A few days later, I drove up Topanga Canyon in Los Agneles to meet this 94 year old cactus collector.

He goes by the name of Uncle Hal.

With my voice recorder, I sat down across from Uncle Hal.

I was completely unprepared for what was about to be one of the more mysterious hours of my whole life.

If the following sounds a little strange, trust me, it was very strange…in the most magical kind of way.

Uncle Hal told me how he left home at 17 to serve in World War II.

He called it “three expense paid tours in the South Pacific.”

He was an electrician, supporting three battles during the war, for which he received three battle stars.

After the war, Uncle Hal was a teacher for 32 years in the LA school district and then volunteered for many more years at a hospital.

Along the way, he became very interested in the mysterious cactus.

30 years ago, Uncle Hal planted some cacti in the gully across from his house in LA.

He watered them for the first few months but has never watered them since. That’s 30 years!!!

He said once a cactus’ roots hit the groundtable, they are good to go.

Uncle Hal’s house is surrounded by old, rare, beautiful cacti.

He describes his affinity for cacti with one word about their character: resilience.

Then Uncle Hal got really into collecting Native American artifacts like belt buckles and clothes and paintings.

Throughout his house on tables and shelves and walls..are old, gorgeous, mystical, Native American artifacts.

I asked him, “Are you spiritual?”

He paused for a long time as 94 year-olds sometimes do.

Uncle Hal responded, “I would have to say yes to that.”

This is the point where everything about this encounter changed.

What was an otherwise easy-going interview became one of the spookiest experiences of my life.

I mean “spooky” in a positive way. Not scary. But absolutely INTENSE.

It was as if a doorway or portal opened, and the spirits came pouring through!

Uncle Hal told me how he has found mathematical secrets to the universe that are conveyed through his dreams.

He handed me a copy of his book, which is almost entirely numbers, formulas, and equations. All of it came to him in his dreams.

Uncle Hal started talking to me about atoms, and frequencies, and black holes.

More than anything, he was talking about energy.

He had an experience when he was younger that the yogis call Kundalini rising. It’s a sense of awakening, a mystical experience.

I explained to Uncle Hal how, over the past few months, I’ve become deeply interested in energy, which far exceeds the power of intellect.

Whether or not you are intellectually skilled, you can really impact people with the quality of your heart, your love, your joy, your enthusiasm. That’s ENERGY.

At this point in our conversation, I felt something so overwhelming…a kind of pressure for which I lacked the capacity to handle.

There was just too much energy in Uncle’s Hal’s home.

When you have all these rare cacti, and all these old Native American artifacts, and a deeply spiritual 94 year old man…

…it was like that little old psychic lady in the movie Poltergeist. Do you remember that?

I said very abruptly, “Uncle Hal, I can’t take anymore today. I have to go.”

He said, “Before you go, go sit under that tetrahedron.”

It was his meditation corner where the energy is strongest.

At that point, I stopped the voice recording and literally ran out the door.

As I was leaving, Uncle Hal said to me, “Now that you are in touch with the energy, what are you going to do with it? What are you going to do with it? What are you going to do with it?”

It was just too much. I had to go.

The next day, I called to set up another meeting with Uncle Hal but our schedules didn’t connect.

I regret to tell you, Uncle Hal passed away just last week.

Uncle Hal’s last words to me, “What are you going to do with the energy?”

I will never forget that.

I’ve been thinking about it for over a month, before finally getting the clarity to share this story with you.

As goes the teaching, “God cannot do for us what he cannot do through us.”

If all you do is open your mind and heart and become a conduit for love, you are doing the very best work you can possibly do.

But for most people, myself especially, we block the channels with feelings other than love.

Everytime I look at social media, I feel the need for something I don’t have. That’s a blockage.

Everytime I watch TV, I feel disturbed or desirous or disconnected. All blockages.

Everytime I dabble in anger or doubt or anxiety…blockages.

Just for fun, will you try this today?

Clear the channels and let love move through your mind and heart and words and actions.

Bring the greatest amount of love into your conversations, meetings, encounters.

“What are you going do with The Energy?”

We all feel The Energy in fits and bursts…after yoga or in meditation or in your own impassioned experience of life.

But more often than not, we get on with our day, and The Energy dissolves.

There’s no power in that.

The UNLOCK comes in that moment where you feel it…and SPREAD IT.

Just for today, instead of being a teacher, entrepreneur, doctor, lawyer, or salesperson…

be a lover.

BE A LOVER!

Do something amazing with The Energy.

Nothing is holding you back.

“To have…give all…to all.”

Joe Pietroforte is rare.

He is 100.

He is a decorated veteran.

His mind is sharp and he shares VIVID memories from every decade of his lifetime.

Joe took me through his nice months of combat in Europe during World War 2.

They crossed rivers in the pitch black of night.

The Germans were often well-entrenched, shooting at them from the other side of the river.

One out of every two soldiers Joe fought alongside did not survive.

Some just hid in their foxholes and didn’t come out.

Others shot off their own toes or fingers, in hope that a trip to the medic would help them avoid combat.

He said, “Dying is easier than living when you’re in combat.”

I asked Joe if he knew he had this courage within him?

“I knew I’d die here or die there. I figured there was no chance I’d survive the war.”

But he survived, and pressed on with his portable rocket launcher, 3 rockets, grenades, belt of ammo, and a backpack with 2 days of rations, a bayonet and a shovel.

After the war, he was decorated with a Silver Star, Bronze Star, European Theater of Operations, 3 battle stars, a victory medal, a Medal of Honor from the government of Luxembourg, a Medal of Honor from the government of Belgium.

Joe did not have a gratitude teaching to tie it all together with a pretty little bow.

When talking to these elders with such a prestigious and grizzly history, I remember that words and quotes and sayings are cheap, something anyone can cut and paste.

Here’s what I did learn from Joe, whose wife died 10 years ago, and yet he is still going strong.

He lives with his baby brother who is 91.

They obviously have good genetics. They credit their diet of olive oil and homemade red wine.

Joe’s brother sings opera.

And Joe LOVES to go dancing, especially when accompanied by younger women.

He said, at this point in his life, when he wears his World War 2 uniform, he is a celebrity.

Joe recently met two younger woman at a veterans event, and they took him out for a night of dancing.

I left this meeting with Joe’s favorite “swing music” playing in my car, imagining the incredible thought of a 100-year-old dancing his heart out!

To spend an hour with any combat veteran, let alone a decorated WW2 centenarian, changes the definition on “value of life.”

It’s not something that usually comes up in conversation and is rarely something one recognizes until their very life comes into question.

When I got together with some of my best college friends last week, we watched the NCAA Tournament, talked about fitness trends, business investments, mutual friends who are struggling, friends who are thriving.

Maybe this sounds like a conversation you’d have with your friends?

There was no “value of life” in the conversation.

And it might have been awkward if someone were to suddenly say, “Dude, how about this? We are lucky to be alive.”

Therein lies the value of the Joe Pietrofortes of the world.

In his book War, Sebastien Junger writes, “Combat isn’t where you might die — though that does happen — it’s where you find out whether you get to keep on living.

“Don’t underestimate the power of that revelation.

“Don’t underestimate the things young men will wager in order to play that game one more time.”

You get to keep on living. 

If that doesn’t resonate…

Imagine voicing your everyday complaints to Joe’s best friends…many of whom perished on the European battlefields, right in front of his eyes.

If it still doesn’t hit you in the heart…

Yesterday I visited my friend who has been in ICU, fighting for his life, every second of everyday, for over a month!

He has 2 young children. His road to recovery will be months and even years into the future.

When asked if he is depressed, he said, “No. I’m fighting to survive so that I can be a parent to my children.”

Consider parenting, not as a hassle, but as a privilege.

You get to keep on parenting.

You get to to keep on running, stretching, breathing. 

You get to keep on dancing. 

There will come a day when you can’t do this stuff anymore.

God wiling, it’s a day in the very distant future.

But as Joe or my friend in ICU might tell you, that day can come any second.

So fill in the blank.

Today, I get to keep on —————-.

And go do it!!!!

Oscar Wilde said, “To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people just exist.”