TEN RULES OF "BEING A HUMAN BEING"

In my unending search for great articles on this thing we call life - I make a few discoveries along the way. A lot of these guides are basic common sense and some actually manage to knock some sense into my pattern of thinking that I might have originally been lacking. Regardless of which category I fall into there is always something to learn - some new perspective that I might not have considered or tried.

Before I go too deep into my rambling - I present to you the: Ten Rules for Being Human by Cherie Carter-Scott

Ten Rules for Being Human

by Cherie Carter-Scott

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's no part of life that doesn't contain its lessons. If you're alive, that means there are still lessons to be learned.
6. "There" is no better a 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 mirrors 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 to life's questions lie within you. All you need to do is look, listen, and trust.
10. You will forget all this.

The gift of lady fate...

Once again I am in the hands of this temptress - this paragon of mystique.
I am alone - trapped by my desires to subjugate her, to tame her and to succeed where very few before me had managed to do so.

The very specter of her - her beguiling wiles and enticing smiles continue to lure me in repeatedly like the call of the sirens - a dead man walking.
In spite of my open reluctance to fall prey...

She has seen the demise of men greater than me and yet - I still stand.

Why?

Was it because of my fascination and perseverance? Was it because I chose to stand firm in the face of her screaming wrath and brutal fury of her veiled claws...

She drew no quarters and expected none and yet there was something in her that promised me all I ever wanted only if I could pass muster and stay the course.

Each endeavor was repeatedly squashed.

It was one failure after another and yet I chose to continue because there was no other way. I had committed too much to turn back. I would not bow to the demands to give up - my spirit was tired but certain that If I kept it up she would relent.

The cult of success is guarded by the few who have seen the eyes of satan and lived to tell the tale and yet their silence was all the answer you got because they still bore the scars to prove to the disbelieving - to show as proof that they had faced down their worst fears and survived.

I would do the same and even though it would hurt me and leave me tattered and torn - I will never give up! Not to her and not on my dreams and aspirations for without them I am nothing - a rudderless ship set adrift in the tidal wave of life's currents. Subjected to the caprices of the storm's fury and scorn.

She bore down on me with venomous intent and I bore the brunt of her castrations - look, see how she has ravaged my masculinity and robbed me of my identity.

But not anymore - her time too shall pass and once more, I will tame her and make her fortunes mine.

There is no escape - only the reward that is due to me - to take that which is my right.

Fate has given me the ultimate prize - her beauty, her tempestuous nature and her favour for I stood where most had failed with the prize in plain sight.

She was a worthy goal in the end - regardless of the outcome, she was a worthy prize indeed!

This thing called: LIFE!

When you slowly rise from the deep mists of sleep and slowly become aware of yourself and your environment - your thoughts are slowly pulled through the fine filters of coherence as you become aware of yourself - it is almost like a computer coming online.

In the mist of this boot up sequence you might be unfortunate to load those pesky files we refer to as the baggage of yesterday. You know what I'm referring to of course: those problems or challenges in your life that seem to stick to you like a leech on skin - they are obvious and painful and often unwanted (except of course you fall into that peculiar category that love "leeches")

Often times the greater challenge for us is the WILL to face the day and give it the "rude finger" - this is of course not to say that our problems magically disappear after this so brief moment but rather that we generate the attitude required to stay ahead of our problems and situation.

I love to read quotes of people who have defined their fates and destinies and have a few words to say on the subject - each has demonstrated a personal philosophy that seems to summarize the "ATTITUDE" required to hold life by the short and curlies regardless of how it seems to look to you right now.

By way of introduction, i give to you a few wise words from: Maya Angelou (pronounced /ˈmaɪ.ə ˈændʒəloʊ/;^[1] born Marguerite Ann Johnson on April 4, 1928)^[2] is an American autobiographer and poet. (quote from: Wikipedia)

(Once again these quotes are not mine and i make no claim to them except as a means to buttress my point of view)

Find below a few of her quotes - find in them something that resonates within you and maybe this will set you towards that which we all seek - freedom to be as we are destined to...

• We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty.
• I can be changed by what happens to me. But I refuse to be reduced by it.
• There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.
• There is a very fine line between loving life and being greedy for it.
• The ache for home lives in all of us, the safe place where we can go as we are and not be questioned.
• Success is liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it.
• I want all my senses engaged. Let me absorb the world's variety and uniqueness.
• If you don't like something, change it. If you can't change it, change your attitude.
• Courage is fear that has said its prayers.
• Talent is like electricity. We don't understand electricity. We use it.
• One isn't necessarily born with courage, but one is born with potential. Without courage, we cannot practice any other virtue with consistency. We can't be kind, true, merciful, generous, or honest.
• I know why the caged bird sings.
• "I've learned people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel".
• History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, however, if faced with courage, need not be lived again.
• When you learn, teach. When you get, give.
• The need for change bulldozed a road down the center of my mind.
• Life loves to be taken by the lapel and told, 'I'm with you kid. Let's go.'

The crime is not when we stumble and fall for without stumbling/falling where would we be on the ladder of life's experiences - the crime is rather when we stumble/fall and chose to stay down in defeat - take as much time as you need while on the ground but when you get up - PLEASE GET UP!