The 19 Steps Of Life

This is List Post.  It was my assignment for my 31 Days To Build a Better Blog created by Darren  over at Problogger.com.  I really appreciate the ideas so far as I am on Day 2.  As you know I already do lists but this was done for the fun of it and I thought you would appreciate knowing my version of what the

The 19 Steps Of Life” are:
  
1.    Your spirit chooses to enter this life and begin the process of exploring the full expression of your soul 
2.    You mother carries you from cell to birth and you are influenced by the prenatal experience, hopefully positive
3.    You find yourself screaming as you enter the world, maybe a forecast as to what’s to come
4.    You arrival makes or expands a family and you feel the confines of being in such a small being unable to communicate directly with words
5.    Your conditioning begins as you find out what people think is good and bad at too early of an age.  They share what they learned which is likely confusion past from generation to generation
6.    Soon school begins and it is scary and there were mean adults you didn’t know (mine was scary people who looked like mad penguins) 
7.    Then you are expected to learn all this stuff, behave and not feel or act inappropriately which means you have to learn to numb out
8.    Soon your body becomes awkward, your mind full of confusing thoughts and disruptive emotions, numbing out seems even more important and drugs sometime enter into the search to make sense out of what makes no sense
9.    Then you go to High School, sports events, proms, see a dermatologist etc and by the time you are a senior you think you know everything
10.    Next you might go to college or work.  One teaches you lots of stuff and the other about life as hard work.  Neither direction is really helpful with the great questions of life
11.    Then you find a partner, get married and start a family or maybe not in that order.  More life lessons come flying at you and you get better at denying all uncomfortable feelings
12.    You then find yourself in a career you are unsure of with a family or it is coming apart and you ask yourself is this my life?  You put your head down and push forward despite the angst
13.    The questions expand, you might even go to church (be careful of those who claim to know God) or to counseling and you want something more than more chocolate
14.    One day you discover there is something inside that is in chaos as you become acquainted with your thoughts, self-talk and the emotional roller coaster inside.  “Maybe my ego/mind is getting in my way” is a thought you might have
15.    Then in the midst of lots of uncertainty you start valuing peace and quiet and before long you discover there is wisdom in the stillness within you and you go exploring
16.    You then begin to awaken and make contact with your spirit/soul (usually nothing to do with going to church on Sunday) all of a sudden it begins to all make sense
17.    If you are not too old when you become awakened (hopefully not your last breath) you will have lots of time to enjoy the peace, love and happiness that comes from being present in your own life
18.    If you miss out on the awakening, you die in fear maybe even grasping toward an empty concept of God, if you have stepped beyond the ego and become conscious, you die in peace
19.    Then you die and it begins again or does it.  I guess we will all find out, won’t we?
 



Peace Letter #27

Dear Mr. President,

Thank you for going after the Supreme Court with such vigor.  Democracy is in trouble already without the floodgates that the Supreme Court opened to increase corporate influence. 

Your challenges seem to grow daily.  Hang in there because the most difficult of times tend to being out the best in all of us.

There is my 27th letter requesting a change in direction in Afghanistan.  I advocate for peace and in these times peace makes so much more sense because there is so much on the plate of this nation without waging an unclear war in a country we do not need to be in.  Please consider peace.

Let your heart be your guide,

Joseph Bernard, Ph.D.

Join me and send President Obama emails of support and encourage the end of war and the other dysfunctional ways at: http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact