ten rules for being human

while digging through some old files for scraps of writing for the novel, I came upon this old list originally posted by metabloom on livejournal.

10 Rules for being Human

1. You will receive a body. You may like it or hate it, but it's yours to keep for the entire period.
2. You will learn lessons. You are enrolled in a full-time informal school called "Life."
3. There are no mistakes, only lessons. Growth is a process of trial, error, and experimentation. The "failed" experiments are as much a part of the process as the experiments that ultimately "work."
4. Lessons are repeated until they are learned. A lesson will be presented to you in various forms until you have learned it. When you have learned it, you can go on to the next lesson.
5. Learning lessons does not end. There is nopart of life that doesn't contain its lessons. If you are alive, that means there are still lessons to be learned.
6. "There" is no better place than "here." When your "there" has become a "here," you will simply obtain another "there" that will again look better than "here."
7. Other people 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.
8. What you make of your life is up to you. You have all the tools and resources you need. What you do with them is up to you. The choice is yours.
9. Your answers lie within you. The answers tolife's questions lie within you. All you need to do is look, listen, and trust.
10. You will forget all this. Isn't That Fascinating?!

Everything in Your Outer Life Happens Inside First.

Did you know that everything physical in your life is just a reflection of everything going on inside you? Your physical life is an "expression" or "pressing outward" of your inner landscape. Some people call this process "out-picturing."
It is the process of takingyour inner thoughts and feelings and making them real. If you are avoiding someone and hoping with all your heart that you do not run into that person, guess what? Chances are that youwill see that person. Why? Because it is an expression of the film that you have been playing over and over in your mind. So if you have a recurring problem on thephysical plane, do not try to fix it with physical solution. You won't get anywhere fast and it is hard work! Work on your inner landscape instead. Take a look inside...

What are your thoughts? What are your feelings? What are you chewing on inside? What are you obsessing about?
When you catch yourself obsessing about something, just smile and say to yourself, "You"re doing that thing you do again!" Keep catching yourself at your own game. Once you get through the initial anger andfrustration, you will find yourself amused athow often your mind will return to the same subject. Then the feeling goes from obsession to humor.
Once you can see the humor in the situation, your outer situation will change. When you can laugh at yourself, everything in your outer environment automatically fixes itself. You won't have to lift a finger. Fascinating, isn't it?

on the books

okay, I may be taking another short break from posting here, so I can work on my novel for National Novel Writing Month. so far I've got one chapter down and 48,000 words left to go.