So far I have learned …

So far I have learned that…

1. “The Rules for Being Human” are true (see below).

2. Everyone over a certain age, if you know them well enough for them to share it, is carrying around some significant pain and sadness.

3. We make choices.  A lot of life is out of our control but life doesn’t “happen to us”.  We make it happen.  Many people aren’t willing to take responsibility for this.

4.  The noise and rat race of our modern world is like a hammer coming down on our heads leaving us dazed.  In the midst of all this noise it is easy to forget the fundamental things about life that we knew as a child.  Life is good.  Playing is fun.

5.  Striving to be better, to be more is a challenge.  But it is rewarding.  Our lives are unfolding right now.  If we pay attention and are willing to push ourselves out of our comfort zones amazing, wonderful things can happen and we can become different people.

6. Life is better when it is shared with a dog (or a cat).

7. Being outside is better than being inside.

8. The idea of compassion is beautiful and easy to understand.  But the practice of compassion is like carrying boulders up a mountain.

9. The ego is what keeps us apart from each other.  It is a barrier to be knocked down.

10. We are all in this together.  Despite our differences we all feel the same pains.  We worry when our children are sick and we suffer when someone we love dies.

The Rules for Being Human

(I don’t know who deserves credit for these rules. When they were given to me in the mid 90’s it said “anonymous”. They may have first appeared in Chicken Soup for the Soul but Dr. Cherie Carter-Scott also seems to take credit for them in her book and on her website.)

1. YOU WILL RECEIVE A BODY.  You may like it or hate it, but it will be yours for the entire period this time around.

 2.  YOU WILL LEARN LESSONS.  You are enrolled in a full-time, informal school called life.  Each day in school you will be presented with opportunities to learn what you most need to know.  The lessons presented are often completely different from those you think you need.

 3.  THERE ARE NO MISTAKES, ONLY LESSONS.  Growth is a process of trial and error, and experimentation.  You can learn as much from failure as you can from success.

 4.  A LESSON IS REPEATED UNTIL IT IS LEARNED.  A lesson will be presented to you in various forms until you have learned it.  When you have learned it (as evidenced by a change in your attitude and ultimately, your behavior), then you can go on to the next lesson.

 5.  LEARNING LESSONS DOES NOT END.  There is no age of life that does not contain its lessons.  If you are still alive, that means there are still additional lessons to be learned.

 6.  “THERE” IS NO BETTER THAN “HERE”.  When your “there” has become a “here”, you will simply discover another “there” that will, again, look better than your “here”.

 7.  OTHERS ARE MERELY MIRROR OF YOU.  You cannot love or hate something about another person unless it reflects to you something you love or hate about yourself.  When tempted to criticize others, ask yourself what behavior of yours they are mirroring to you.

 8.  WHAT YOU MAKE OF YOUR LIFE IS UP TO YOU.  You have all the tools and resources you need; what you create with them is up to you.  Remember that through desire, goal setting and right effort you can have anything you want, but not everything you want.  Persistence is the key ingredient for success.

 9.  THE ANSWERS LIE INSIDE YOU.  The answers to all of life’s questions lie within you.  All you need to do is ask, look, listen, and trust.

 10.  YOU WILL FORGET ALL THIS.  You will forget all of the above rules unless you regularly practice some means of staying focused and grounded in the present.  Your ego will continually try to trick you into blaming your past or becoming anxious about your future.  Thus will you lose contact with the present and become asleep to the lessons and realities of life.