Meditation, prayer, insight and Self Time Outs... these human traditions of wisdom have been passed from mother and father to their children and from Elders to all community members since the very beginning.

Wise people know that each person has impulses, weaknesses, and habits that come from our genes, from our families, and from other early experiences.Wise people know that these traits are not really bad or evil but they can create terrible consequences for us, for our loved ones and for the community.

Wise people know that each person has enough strengths and ability to do difficult tasks in order to survive and become everything The Creator intended for them. This is known because if your parents didn't have these strengths and abilities we would not have been born and survived to this point. Even if we are brought up in the middle of crisis we recieve enough strengths and ability to survive and become everything we are intended to become.

Wise people know the questions are:
Will I know when I am making a mistake?
Will I be aware of the consequences?
Will I choose to learn?

Many people are not taught and do not know how to choose to use their strengths and choose not to use their impulsiveness.

There are as many traditions in as many cultures about how to choose to use strengths. Each culture teaches a way to learn from impusliveness and mistakes. That is how the culture survives. Each one contains the following ideas; I am choosing to plug into my strengths when:

1. I can choose to detach from what is irritating me.
2. I can choose to focus on my physical body (my feelings and my needs) instead of continuing to focus on what is irritating me.
3. I can choose to listen to what my body says to me about what I feel and need. I can take note.
4. I can make a plan to take care of my own feelings and needs instead of expecting someone or something else to do that for me. I can comfort myself.
5. I can praise myself and give thanks that I know how to choose my own path in the world.

The Creator gave each of us free will to choose what we focus on right now.

The Creator gave each of us a body that always notices what we are doing and what the consequences will be.

The Creator gave each of us a mind to make a better plan with better consequences.

The Creator gave each of us the potential to take better care of ourselves and to feel grateful for the opportunity.

If I choose not to use the strengths I was given, I will forget that I have free will, or I will believe that it has been taken from me, or I will believe that the world is unfare and that my fate is dark. When I am living this way I will plug into the weakness and impulses my culture and my family gave me.

Or

I can take a FIVE STEP SELF TIME OUT and plug into the strengths my culture and my family gave me.

When I practice making choices and taking repsonsibility for the outcome, I will gain faith in my own power to choose.

MOUNT VERNON PARENT'S NIGHT

BOB BONNER

FAMILY STORIES

KEVIN PAUL
and the
Children’s Museum

GREY SIX

MEMORIAL