The 21 Step Program

(Maybe I'm dyslexic, but 12 never seemed like enough steps for me.)

A few years ago, a friend of mine asked me to share some tips with her, about how to live more "spiritually." I sat down at my computer and typed up this list of actions that were part of my ongoing effort to live with grace. It wound up being a list of 20 things, in no particular order as far as I can recall. I printed it off, stuck it to my fridge, and I think it's been there for about four years.

Sometime, maybe 3 years or so ago, I penciled in the 21st step.

Tonight I decided to take a refresher course in spiritual practice from a previous iteration of myself.

Here goes.

1. Acknowledge a higher power. Learn to do it without embarassment.
2. Understand yourself as an individual work and statement of that higher power.
3. Observe yourself. Know yourself.
4. Recognize that love is the unifying principle that underlies all things.
5. Give thanks every day for what you have. "Thank you, God, for this day" is what I say.
6. Practice meditation if you can.
7. Read the works of the masters: Jesus, the Buddha, Kahlil Gibran, etc.
8. Find God in music, art, nature, and also in difficulty and disaster.
9. Try to understand the unity of everything.
10. Seek to fill yourself with love, so that you can overflow and love others.
11. Surrender. And never give up!
12. Believe that you are here for a reason.
13. Acknowledge the fact that miracles happen all the time.
14. Seek to overcome yourself, to be in the world but not of it.
15. Practice friendship, companionship, laughter, love - don't just let them happen.
16. Begin at the beginning.
17. Give yourself a break.
18. Ask for help.
19. Follow your gut feelings.
20. Trust Truth.
21. GET ON WITH IT.