Rules for Being Human

*** Title of this post is taken from a section in the book If Life is a Game, These are the Rules by Cherie Carter-Scott.  Most of this post is simply a reprint of her rules. ***

On Saturday, I attended a spiritual workshop hosted by my wonderful rabbi.  With the High Holidays rapidly approaching (as in Rosh Hashanah is in ONE WEEK! Eek!), my rabbi, with the help of some fabulous ladies, presented Day Spa for the Soul.  In her portion about teshuvah (literally meaning "to turn around" but commonly translated to mean "repent"), she began her discussion with these "rules".  I thought I'd share them with you for a little food for thought.

The Rules for Being Human

1. You will receive a body. You may like it or hate it, but it will be yours for the entire period of this time around.

2. You will learn lessons. You are enrolled in a full-time informal school called Life. Each day in this school you will have the opportunity to learn lessons. You may like the lessons of think them irrelevant and stupid.

3. There are no mistakes, only lessons. Growth is a process of trial and error: Experimentation. The "failed" experiments are as much a part of the process as the experiment that ultimately "works."

4. A lesson is repeated until learned. A lesson will be presented to you in various forms until you have learned it. When you have learned it, you can then go on to the next lesson.

5. Learning lessons does not end. There is no part of life that does not contain its lessons. If you are alive, there are lessons to be learned.

6. "There" is no better than "here". When your "there" has become a "here", you will simply obtain another "there" that will again look better than "here".

7. Others are merely mirrors of you. You cannot love or hate something about another person unless it reflects 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 inside you. The answers to Life's questions lie inside you. All you need to do is look, listen, and trust.

10. You will forget all of this.