Contents

We were each a child who grew and became more visible in the world. If we respect children as individuals who have their own thoughts, emotions, and dreams, they will feel good about themselves and in turn respect us. This back and forth respect and communication bridges the generation gap.

For adults, children are our inspirations to act as best we can. Growth is from both sides. The 'adult' is the example and the 'child' inspires the adult to be their best.

Children are impressionable and react rapidly to stimulus. Children as individuals need a general and personalized plan with their schooling to develop their inherent qualities.

Besides academics, children need to learn practical living skills and spiritual practices, which provide a foundation to live in society as useful adults.

2. Crossing the Bridge to Adulthood

Teenagers walk across a bridge spanning the river of uncertainty, from the security of childhood on one side, to the other side of sole responsibility. It is a swinging bridge, with teenagers swaying at the beginning, in the middle, and at the end, sometimes hanging on precariously along the way, till finally stepping onto the firm ground of solo independence.

Adults that are around children need to extend a helping hand if teenagers are about to fall; otherwise we should just observe and allow them to master their walk.

The basis for their behavior as teenagers was set before they turned thirteen years old. In the teenage years the fledglings are testing their wings. Adults can guide but not act for teenagers, otherwise they won't reach the end of their bridge to independence, or will be slowed down past the age of twenty.

Guidelines for teenage behavior at home and at school should be set by the parents and teachers with repercussions made known beforehand, and then enacted if the rules are violated.

As adults, we have golden opportunities to inspire and bring out the best in children, our next generation, by our words and actions. Let us, as responsible adults, fully love each other and our children, living as the best examples that we can.

3. Nurturing; Nesting Family to World Family

A baby, cuddled in the heart to heart position regains the feelings of security and protection lost, when suddenly free of the womb. With repeated hugs and cuddling, baby, mother, all of baby's family develops a mutual relationship of ever increasing love.

On the larger scale of human development and evolution, the devotion developed in nurturing our family expands gradually to include others in our loving care. We grow from self-centeredness, feeling a limited amount of love, to the experience of expanded never-ending loving energy reaching out to all.
 
 

4. Extended Family

While growing up we observe what is entailed in being a father, mother, brother, sister. If each of these basic roles were not in our own family, we saw them in families around us. As adults, many of us extend into the parenting role with our own children or with the children of relatives and friends.

The family we grew up in is our nesting family. After we fly from the nest as young adults, we begin to relate in ways that form additional family groups. If we marry, we then gain an ever larger family of in-laws.

5. Back to the Nest

As children, we practice relating with those older, younger, and similar in age. With relatives, we have a common tie, but varying interests, abilities, and goals. We get practice in fulfilling our own desires while learning to get along harmoniously with others in the nest.

No matter what individual differences we have, we all have basic similarities, just as children of the same set of parents have similarities and differences. We each have a body, discriminative mind, emotions, soul, and were born of the union of two parents forming one whole new person. We begin to feel the underlying harmonious force of love weaving its way through our lives, enriching us with the realization that we are not in solitude on the planet, but interrelated in our worldwide extended family.

To understand our inborn harmonious union with others we need to practice giving and receiving, relaxing and enjoying our interrelatedness.

By sharing and caring with others we experience a feeling of fullness and connectedness. By nurturing these feelings of connection and satisfaction daily, our capacity grows to include more people in our loving circle, eventually realizing and feeling our oneness with our entire planetary family.

6. Roles in Transition

7. Love and Harmony; Our Constant

8. Developing a Discerning Mind and Will Power

When we are able and willing to make the choices and carry through on what is best in each situation we maintain or regain harmony in our lives.

We develop a discerning mind by first following the guidelines that religion and society have laid out for us, basically the golden rule extended. 'Do unto others as we would have them do unto us' and do unto ourselves what allows us to preserve our personal peace, happiness, and health.

Developing will power only comes when we are mentally convinced on what we want. Because it is harder to walk a straight line than a wide road we must be more than convinced to follow through on a plan. We must diligently apply ourselves to our plan all day long. An example of using the combination of discernment and will power is with ending the habit of cigarette smoking. We first use our discerning mind, to consider the pros and cons of cigarette smoking on all aspects of our life. As we all intellectually know that scientific research has shown cigarette smoking is dangerous to our health it is up to us through the use of our will power to quit smoking.

It is in the combination of discernment and will power that we upgrade the quality of our life and make space for our consciousness to expand.

There is a certain degree of refinement needed before the more esoteric thoughts and experiences can flow through our minds—taking shape through our actions.

9. Course Corrections

Change is not failure—rather, change using new information to get us to our destination more easily is the most efficient path on which to proceed. Even change many times on the way to our goals when a clearer way becomes visible is the best course of action to follow.

The need for course corrections can face us at any stage in the progress of any goal we are seeking, even when we are deeply entrenched along a specific path.

Allowing course corrections makes use of our intelligent, discerning, and creative faculties. We are given these aspects of mind to be able to adjust ourselves to changing circumstances and conditions in our lives, including career goals and relationships.

When we become aware that another action would be for the higher good of a situation we need to make a course correction to maintain our balance of peace of mind and an easeful body.

Our ultimate path in life is to act so that we maintain peace of mind and an easeful body while growing in consciousness of the whole of ourselves. And the whole of ourselves is not limited to our body, mind and emotions. It is the knowing that we use our body in action, our mind in creatively solving life's problems, and our emotions to show care as tools to get to know our infinite soul. Our soul, having far-reaching roots that are sunk in the infinite Spirit, invisible but ever present, experienced through the portal of our heart by our actions of unconditional love.

I have found as I traverse through life, that standing back emotionally, but still using compassion to view issues clearly, I serve most usefully. And at the same time I am preserving my own balance. Being willing to upgrade my actions, making the necessary course corrections along the way continually increases my ability to find constructive answers.
 
 

10. Understanding Attachments

While we are separated from the people we love a few hours a day, or even days at a time, we still feel their presence in our life, and we still feel our love for them. Loving, connected feelings don't need the person loved to be present in order to be experienced.

Experiment…

Close your eyes and visualize a person you love; feel their presence with you; enjoy the warmth you are feeling in your body; relax into the cozy feelings. Open your eyes. Now you know that you can feel connected and one with those you love, even when you are away from them.

And even physically we are always, in an unseen way, interconnected with one another, as molecules of the physical dimension are inter-linked. We are actually feeling this when we say that we have a heart-to-heart connection with another.

Practicing the above experiment gives us some understanding with the underlying ever-present radiant energy sustaining us.

By becoming steeped in the deep ocean of self-sustained love that we are all immersed in, we can experience love independent of another's physical form. We need not cling in an attached dependent way to another person's visible physical presence to feel love and happiness. Rather, we can share our self-sustained loving feelings with others at all times.

11. Objects

Objects we are attached to could be reminders of some happiness we previously experienced, maybe in an association with a loving experience with a person. Or, we may think that acquiring an object will cause us to feel warmth, happiness, or connectedness. Here again, we can visualize the object and see ourselves enjoying it, even allowing our bodies to feel what it is like to be enjoying the object. If we do this in our mind, we do not need to have the physical possession to get the feeling we want to experience.

We feel more connected with all the creation while we are feeling warmth and radiance in our body-mind. And as we just experimented with and found out first hand, we are able to live in a state of connectedness, without having a visible physical manifestation in our presence. We are free to enjoy feeling love, lovingness body and mind, at any moment that we choose, and as deeply and fully as we choose.
 
 

12. Transitions

Life is a long series of transitions, moment to moment, hour to hour, day to day, birth to childhood, to adulthood, to death, to after death.

We can easefully flow and allow change as it naturally occurs, and in this way grow in fullness and maturity, ripening well as fruits on the tree ripen and share with whomever need them. Or, we can mentally, emotionally, and physically resist the changes, which happen anyway.

Resisting change takes more energy than flowing and accepting. It is harder to stand still against the pounding ocean surf than to float atop the waves. Resistance or acceptance is our choice.

Conscious transitions lead on an upward curve into greater awareness of our whole composite nature, which is powered by a permanent electric-type energy that we call spiritual energy, sustaining us through all the transitory moments of eternity.

It makes more sense to observe mother nature and note that all physical forms only change from physical to energy to physical to energy over and over again. No atom on any plane of existence is ever lost, only in one of its various momentary forms. We can't see energy with our physical eyes so we think that when a physical form disintegrates it is gone forever. Nature itself disproves this. Physics disproves this. The physical has only made a transition to the invisible energy and will probably come into another physical form some day.

There are no breaks or spaces of emptiness in the transition between the various states of being. Whether mineral, plant, animal, or human, there is absolutely no way there could ever be a void of consciousness during transitions.

Watch a paper burn. First the paper is just as it is. Then the lit match touches the paper causing a slight discoloration where the paper is converting to heat energy and then, before our eyes we fully feel and see the heat and flame—the energy—manifesting itself. Then we see a pile of ash. The ash mixed into the earth nourishes a new seedling, perhaps again becoming paper later on. All that we observed were transitions of matter to energy to matter. Was there ever an empty space, a state of nothingness? No.

When we sleep at night our waking consciousness withdraws from the sense organs, rests, then returns upon waking. Later that day consciousness again withdraws. We survive that transition of energy being in our limbs to energy being withdrawn from our limbs, back and forth every day. We do not experience any discomfort or sense of loss as our senses withdraw and we fall into sleep. We continue on. We easefully make the transition every day.

From these observations we see that all life continues on, only its visible form disappears from our physical sight. And what we feel attached to is ever with us in our consciousness whether we can see it or not with our eyes.

We can feel our unseen oneness with our family and friends, feel our unseen ties at this moment, those ties not dependent on anyone's physical presence with us, when we are feeling the energy form of manifestation that we call love.

13. The Spirited Inner Child

Our creative self—a spirited inner child—full of ideas, just waiting for opportunity, outlet.

Giving vent to our creative energies, energizes...

As we grow into adulthood we sometimes forget those early years when creative play was encouraged to help us learn.

But our inner child—our aspect of creativity—dabbling, producing from raw materials, or an idea from experiments, is just as necessary now.

Perhaps our personal issues could more easily be resolved if we recaptured the attitude of creative adventure from our long-ago. Perhaps our world problems could more easily be identified, solved, if we took a creatively Spirited attitude.

14. Towing the Line

We 'tow the line' when we are good ourselves, and then act for the best resolve in each situation.

When we 'tow the line' we pull our just weight in the world. We do our part to contribute from our natural and acquired talents to the betterment of our family, friends, and world community.

We can best 'tow the line' by taking good care of ourselves—maintaining ourselves in the best way possible. These are some methods I use to keep in shape physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually:

     1. Each morning upon waking I tune in on the channel of the Holy Sound Vibration for a few moments. (My writing 'Quiet Time' has instructions for making contact with the Holy Vibration.) That sets my attitudes and thoughts in a positive direction for a productive day.
     2. I eat a diet that is as close to its natural form as possible. I recommend the writings of Dr. Deepak Chopra to learn about the Ayurvedic approach to diet.
     3. I walk for a half hour before work in the morning. Master Sivananda of Rishikesh, both a medical doctor and a great Yogi, suggested walking out stress, and I find this is true for myself. Walking relieves pent up mental stress. And physically, it maintains muscle tone and bone mass, because it is a weight bearing.
     4. During the work day, I tune in to the Holy Vibration occasionally for a 20-second mental break. Diving into my inner pool of spiritual refreshment—even for these few seconds—rejuvenates me enough to continue effectively with the task at hand.
     5. I follow my conscience in my actions. Perhaps this is how I best 'tow the line' in living.

In summary, I have presented a few of my own techniques that assure that I will be able to maintain peace of mind, moment to moment, all during my day. These are tried and true methods incorporating all our human aspects and attributes, while we are living as compilations of body, mind, emotion, soul—powered on the infinite, and ever-ready energy of Spirit.
 
 

15. Treading Lightly into Enlightenment

By holding the attitude of living as if in a sibling relationship with all, we naturally and spontaneously show the most kindness and care.

Coming into the world, coming into a family nest, nurtures and teaches us about cooperation in the outside world. What we learn from these early examples of caring and kindness work best to show us the way of peace and harmony in all our relationships thereafter.

And if we grew up in a turbulent family, then our lesson from childhood is how not to act as adults.

As we pass into the new millenium, let us consider making the inner commitment to interact with one another with the respect and loving kindness of a brother or sister—a most precious aid in producing the full blossoming of our humanity. And, in this way of kindness and caring, we will be treading lightly into our own enlightenment.

Let us join with the Force of Goodness and abandon the darkness of ignorance about the source of our happiness. Let us remember that it is with an attitude of kindness and concern that we are ever immersed in, bathed, in consciousness of happiness and harmony.
 
 

16. Turning Toward the Light

We turn on the light in a room in order to see. Plants turn toward the light in order to grow. And, we turn to the light of enlightened knowledge, in order to see the pathway for growth in Self-knowledge.

Turning toward the light is natural and normal. The plant and animal world, and ourselves, ebb and flow in the daily cycle of light—within the monthly and yearly patterns of light.

17. World, Here I Am—How We Present Ourselves to the World

World, here I am. By our words and actions—not just by our appearance—we present ourselves to the world.

We have the choice as to whether to make a positive—thereby useful, or
negative—thereby harmful presentation. But, our personal happiness depends on us making a positive presentation of ourselves.

Happiness is a quality of our soul—a quality that is ever present in us. It is up to us to find and enjoy happiness by our efforts in meditation; holding an appreciative attitude—a positive attitude; caring actions; and actions for the highest welfare of all in each situation.

And in the world, positive attitudes and actions for the highest good, performed with care, put our state of happiness into use—into usefulness.

Another benefit as we practice happy living, is that by holding positive attitudes our physical body remains relaxed. Relaxed, yet energized, as the body and mind are ever entwined.

In summary—happiness is everyone's wish. And happiness is found within ourselves, in the depths of meditation; nurtured in daily living by holding onto positive attitudes, and enjoyed as we act with care and for the highest welfare of all in each situation.

18. Zooming Along on the Fast-Track

Keeping pace in our fast-track society, requires us to prioritize our activities.

I have found that prioritizing daily tasks, as well as long range goals, makes the most efficient use of my energy. In my daily list I include relaxation time as well as planned activities. If we fill up our list with just goal-oriented activities we deprive our mind of the time it needs to download, and assimilate the lessons and outcomes of the day—thereby best planning the course of action for the next day.

Time spent in reflection and meditation each day gives us contact with our all-knowing Resource within—that infinite part of ourselves that can direct our outer actions, by letting us know the course to follow for the best outcome of our situations.

Our internal Resource is a deeper aspect of us than our regular thinking mind. The information coming to us from our infinite soul—our infinite Resource—comes most easily to our waking consciousness—our thoughts—when we still our body and think lovingly, as in meditation.

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Susan Helene Kramer is an international author of more than 50 collections and a thousand articles on rhythmic movement, modern dance, ballet, music, philosophy, social issues, meditation, yoga and practical spirituality for children, teens, adults, and those challenged, with some translations in Dutch, French, German, Greek and Spanish, and with her husband, Stan Schaap- http://www.powertoshare.com resides in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
web site http://www.susankramer.com
email susan@susankramer.com

'Transitions are a process of change; love is the constant'
Susan Kramer

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