strangers. Our prejudices and belief system can make us feel attacked, even if we aren't. Some things that we hear may affect us. Even if they don’t hurt us when they are being said, we can add negativity to them after we have had time to think about them and to add our baggage. The person who said them usually didn’t mean to hurt us and they may tell us that, but our old baggage tells us that we know what they really meant.

We really have to pay attention to that. The fear of being hurt, or hurting another person, is pervasive now

We discovered something fun to do when we were young and summers were hot. All of us would take a long walk up the hill and across the bridge, to our elementary school (which was closed for the summer) with large pieces of cardboard. We would enter the gate near the athletic field, climb one of the biggest hills--making sure to find the best one, and slide down. Every so often we would hit a big hole, or the cardboard would simply stop. When that happened we flew down the hill even faster, or we would tumble down all the way like a log bouncing down a hill. That was even more fun. The first thing we did afterwards, of course, was look down for grass stains, since our mothers often worried about such things.

As I look back at those days I realize that falling off, sliding on my knees, and violently rolling down the hill were fun. I am amazed that nothing would hurt afterwards. I don't think that would be the case if I did it now. I can barely get down on one knee outside to change a car tire without it hurting. I wonder what happened. Some times I wonder if I'm really feeling more pain, or if I am just pay more attention to it. Maybe my fear of pain interferes with my performance of sports and fun activities. The stress and the tensing of the muscles that come from my expectation can add to the possibility of becoming injured more severely than when I was a child. It is said that many of the breaks that happen in the hips of senior citizens come not only from thinning bones, but from inflexibility, and also from tensing the muscles while in the act of falling.

This could also be the case in more areas of our lives than sliding down hills, or doing physical things. Sometimes I think we may all get hurt emotionally because of our expectations and because of tensing. It is difficult to go into a crowd of strangers and just begin to talk and make close friends sometimes, or just to lose oneself in the crowd, like we did when we were very young. It is especially difficult after one has been through the horror of puberty and the development of the infamous pecking order. We could get hurt by being open and exposing ourselves in a crowd of strangers. Our prejudices and belief system can make us feel attacked, even if we aren't. Some things that we hear may affect us. Even if they don’t hurt us when they are being said, we can add negativity to them after we have had time to think about them and to add our baggage. The person who said them usually didn’t mean to hurt us and they may tell us that, but our old baggage tells us that we know what they really meant.

We really have to pay attention to that. The fear of being hurt, or hurting another person, is pervasive nowa

cing down a hill. That was even more fun. The first thing we did afterwards, of course, was look down for grass stains, since our mothers often worried about such things.

As I look back at those days I realize that falling off, sliding on my knees, and violently rolling down the hill were fun. I am amazed that nothing would hurt afterwards. I don't think that would be the case if I did it now. I can barely get down on one knee outside to change a car tire without it hurting. I wonder what happened. Some times I wonder if I'm really feeling more pain, or if I am just pay more attention to it. Maybe my fear of pain interferes with my performance of sports and fun activities. The stress and the tensing of the muscles that come from my expectation can add to the possibility of becoming injured more severely than when I was a child. It is said that many of the breaks that happen in the hips of senior citizens come not only from thinning bones, but from inflexibility, and also from tensing the muscles while in the act of falling.

This could also be the case in more areas of our lives than sliding down hills, or doing physical things. Sometimes I think we may all get hurt emotionally because of our expectations and because of tensing. It is difficult to go into a crowd of strangers and just begin to talk and make close friends sometimes, or just to lose oneself in the crowd, like we did when we were very young. It is especially difficult after one has been through the horror of puberty and the development of the infamous pecking order. We could get hurt by being open and exposing ourselves in a crowd of strangers. Our prejudices and belief system can make us feel attacked, even if we aren't. Some things that we hear may affect us. Even if they don’t hurt us when they are being said, we can add negativity to them after we have had time to think about them and to add our baggage. The person who said them usually didn’t mean to hurt us and they may tell us that, but our old baggage tells us that we know what they really meant.

We really have to pay attention to that. The fear of being hurt, or hurting another person, is pervasive now

y feeling more pain, or if I am just pay more attention to it. Maybe my fear of pain interferes with my performance of sports and fun activities. The stress and the tensing of the muscles that come from my expectation can add to the possibility of becoming injured more severely than when I was a child. It is said that many of the breaks that happen in the hips of senior citizens come not only from thinning bones, but from inflexibility, and also from tensing the muscles while in the act of falling.

This could also be the case in more areas of our lives than sliding down hills, or doing physical things. Sometimes I think we may all get hurt emotionally because of our expectations and because of tensing. It is difficult to go into a crowd of strangers and just begin to talk and make close friends sometimes, or just to lose oneself in the crowd, like we did when we were very young. It is especially difficult after one has been through the horror of puberty and the development of the infamous pecking order. We could get hurt by being open and exposing ourselves in a crowd of strangers. Our prejudices and belief system can make us feel attacked, even if we aren't. Some things that we hear may affect us. Even if they don’t hurt us when they are being said, we can add negativity to them after we have had time to think about them and to add our baggage. The person who said them usually didn’t mean to hurt us and they may tell us that, but our old baggage tells us that we know what they really meant.

We really have to pay attention to that. The fear of being hurt, or hurting another person, is pervasive now

reas of our lives than sliding down hills, or doing physical things. Sometimes I think we may all get hurt emotionally because of our expectations and because of tensing. It is difficult to go into a crowd of strangers and just begin to talk and make close friends sometimes, or just to lose oneself in the crowd, like we did when we were very young. It is especially difficult after one has been through the horror of puberty and the development of the infamous pecking order. We could get hurt by being open and exposing ourselves in a crowd of strangers. Our prejudices and belief system can make us feel attacked, even if we aren't. Some things that we hear may affect us. Even if they don’t hurt us when they are being said, we can add negativity to them after we have had time to think about them and to add our baggage. The person who said them usually didn’t mean to hurt us and they may tell us that, but our old baggage tells us that we know what they really meant.

We really have to pay attention to that. The fear of being hurt, or hurting another person, is pervasive now

strangers. Our prejudices and belief system can make us feel attacked, even if we aren't. Some things that we hear may affect us. Even if they don’t hurt us when they are being said, we can add negativity to them after we have had time to think about them and to add our baggage. The person who said them usually didn’t mean to hurt us and they may tell us that, but our old baggage tells us that we know what they really meant.

We really have to pay attention to that. The fear of being hurt, or hurting another person, is pervasive nowadays. People are often afraid to say anything because they are afraid they might say the wrong thing or be misunderstood. If we want to be able to enjoy ourselves and the company of other people, however, it is worth the risk. During my youth we could have played it safe. We could have become couch potatoes, or could have stayed home all of the time, but we didn’t. We lived. We took that old cardboard and shot down those hills over and over again until we learned how to stay on. We can do the same as adults.

We can play it safe. We can be like couch potatoes as we sit and watch life and its experiences pass us by, or we can become engaged. We are more lucky than I was when I was a child. We were safe because the hills, which seemed so grand to us, were not really that big. We didn’t know the difference. We adults have the knowledge and wisdom to know the difference. We can survey the hills with other people. We can choose the right clothing. We can even buy stretch, slide down the hill padded seat, cardboard sliding suits that will minimize the damage if we make mistakes. We can set up experiences so that we can take risks in safe places—not risks that will leave us broken or permanently crushed, but risks that will set us free. We can take the risks that will teach us that we have resiliency and perseverance. This can be done as we come to know who we truly are.

Step by step, we can take steps to increase the parts of our selves that we see as positive and decrease the parts of ourselves we perceive as negative. With our family, friends and loved ones, and in a community that cares, all things are possible. You may wonder where such communities and families exist. Wherever you and I and others decide to make them.

The truth is that we all have the power to make such communities anywhere we would like. Step one is being interested. Step two is finding others who are interested. Step three is meeting. Step four is dedicating oneself to get past one's own ego and to dedicate oneself to meet as a group to develop oneself and the whole group. In a group we can work together just like that group of kids who walked all the w