Humpty Dumpty

I want, by understanding myself, to understand others. ~ Katherine Mansfield

Growing up to be the best people we can be is a lifelong process. As teenagers, we may have thought that twenty-one would be a magic year for us because then we would become adults. We�d be grown up and able to handle any problems that came along, if any did.

But the older we get, the more we realize that growing up is a process that never ends.

We are always becoming the people we are capable of being.

We�re always learning new things about ourselves, and in that process, we�re always coming to new understandings about other people and how we can get along with them.

How wonderful that life always offers us room to grow!

It makes new discoveries possible all through our lives, and ensures us that we will always have something to offer.

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,

Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.

~ Mother Goose

Poor Humpty ended up such a scrambled egg.

Maybe that�s what comes from sitting too long in one place, choosing neither this way nor that, playing both sides against the middle.

Maybe he played too much politics, got too much advice, had too much to think about.

When the centipede was asked which leg he first moved when setting out on a stroll, he got those legs all tangled in his mind and couldn�t walk at all.

It is better to be simply moved by those around us, or by our Higher Power, with faith and love.

When our thoughts fail, their hearts, hands, and eyes will show the way.

There is a proper balance between not asking enough of oneself

and asking or expecting too much.

� May Sarton

The boy�s mother baked pies that morning before he was up. She left them on the back porch to cool, their warm aroma curling up through his bedroom window.

His mouth was full of the smell when he woke.

Before she left for work, she said, �You may do anything you want today, anything at all. Except for one thing � don�t step in those pies.�

All day the boy could not get the pies out of his mind; his feet itched just thinking about them.

Don�t step in those pies. He heard her voice inside his head. By late afternoon he could control it no longer. One, two, three, four, five, six � his foot fell squarely into the middle of each pie.

When we expect the worst from others, we often get just that. The same goes for our expectations of ourselves.

And when we trust others, it too is returned