Maturity or What ?

Rowden December 2020

• Listening is important, giving full attention and doing this in the right way, giving up some of your own power, arrogance and self-will

• If you want to grow, openness and interaction with others is vital, since then you have access to and help from someone else's gifts, talents and experience
• You cannot escape the changes in your own bodies and lives. This is inevitable, no-one can stand still, you can't cling to what is safe and well-known and comfortable. You must face up to the demands of growth and change as you meet these. Standing still is not an option -- progress is!
• When you start to understand yourself and are able to deal with your own limitations. then it's easier to see the problems in the lives of others and to relate better to them
• Maturity comes by confronting what has to be dealt with in ourselves and getting to understand us better
• Beware of too much pride. Pride is the desire to control, not only you, your own day and life, but all those around you, so that your future and your world is as YOU want it to be! It is so easy to be tempted to manipulate the people in your life, to force your expectations on them so that they act in a way that they know will please you. Then it becomes all about ME and you fail to accept others as they are
• Try to accept the totality of self, each part is worthy of respect. There should be balance, proportion and harmony which is central to the whole being, whether this be physical, mental or the will or spirit. Each area is of value and has its part to play in maintaining the complete individual. All will play a positive part in the overall development of creative living and all activities are significant
• The body is good, listen to what is has to tell you; this is a skill often lost as you move on from child to adult. Childhood vision is often destroyed by the cerebral expectation of most modern education (by both teachers and parents)
• Your overall satisfaction lies in what you do and how you do it, not in how important you become
• Have respect for those around you, especially those with whom you have close contact, they all have strengths and weaknesses, but also all have something to offer
• If you really know yourself and are comfortable with YOU, you are then much more able to see others as they really are and accept them both as they are and for what they can contribute to your life
• Friendship is a much neglected art, receiving less attention today than sex, marriage or family. Recognize the ultimate worth of each individual, as this allows for the diversity of needs and gifts, which grow from this. A friend accepts you just as you are, does not try to devalue or change you into what they want or need
• It is not always in the best interests of an individual to fail to reprove or to discipline; growth into responsible maturity requires both appreciation of limits and security
• Practical knowledge of life and how to live it, often comes through personal contact and in subtle ways. One size does not fit all and the true master teaches as he sees fit for each individual pupil. Each of us needs different solutions and remedies
• Take responsibility for your own actions, be willing to be sorry, accept being wrong and being forgiven. Forgiveness is the greatest factor of growth for any human being. It makes us face our pain, forces us to confront and deal with it. Seek peace and pursue it, peace must start within yourself

I am the part I must play,
I am the path I must follow,
I am whatever I must endure
To bear the burden of the years
Of good and evil, of time and place,
But at last the story has been told
All that should be has in fact been.
…………
But should you search with the heart
It will still be…….