I am a collector of words

Words feed me, free me, comfort, uplift and heal me. I've been saving my favorites in books, handwritten over the years and thought that perhaps in sharing them, not only am I preserving them for myself, but perhaps others may also find healing in them as I have.

Sunday, March 14, 2010

William James says there are two types of people:  Once-born and Twice-born. 

Once-Born:
  1. Do not stray from familiar territory of who they think they are and what they think is expected of them.
  2. If pushed to the edge (of Dante's dark woods) where the straight way is lost.
  3. Don't want to learn something new from life's darkest lessons.
  4. Stay with what feels safe and what is expected/acceptable to their family and society
  5. Stick to what they already know -even if they don't necessarily want it or like it.
  6. May go their whole life and never know what lies beyond the woods.
  7. May question later, "Is this all there is to life?"
  8. Lives as if the soul was a figment of a flighty imagination.
  9. Leads to confusion, numbness, sadness, depression, anger.
  10. Avoid, deny or bitterly accept the unpredictable changes of real life.
Twice-Born:

  1. Always pays attention to the soul poking it's head through a half-lived life.
  2. Whether through choice or calamity- goes into the woods, loses the straight way, confronts that which needs to change within himself in order to live a more genuine and radiant life.
  3. The journey into the woods of change and transformation is an inner one. 
  4. The most ordinary-looking lives are often being lived by the most extraordinary spiritual warriors; people who have chosen the road less traveled, of self-reflection.
  5. Uses adversity for awakening.
  6. Trade the safety of the known for the power of the unknown
  7. Something calls them into the woods (betrayal, illness, divorce, loss, death), where the straight path vanishes, and there is no turning back, only going through. 

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