A wiggly, sqirming baby, kicking
and screaming.....A Rebel. Is it
protesting against it's birth? Rejecting
0r.....Is it struggling to get somewhere?
Does it want to change....its form? its
surroundings? Is it frightened or what
lies ahead? Or....does it want to go
back where it came?

Second Stage:

It's quieter now...Has it accepted
its condition? Does it think things
are not quite as bad as they seemed?
After looking over surroundings,
has it given up being so frightened?
Has it decided that this world is not
so bad after all? Or...Is it using
strategy...keeping quiet long enough
to figure out how to escape. What?

Third Stage:

Toddling, running, playing,
jumping, jabbering, talking,
reading, counting, exploring,
fighting, dancing, loving, hating
awkward, stubborn,.....still rejecting
...repelling...still frightened...pro-
tecting...seeking..resisting.

Jubilant, happy, sad, cruel,
king, still seeking, but more sure
of a goal, reckless, not frightened
anymore. Understanding that
comes with half knowledge, final
acceptance of existance with
gratefulness for being alive, in love
with love, "All the world's a stage" and
I'm the leading actor; I've got the
world by the tail and can I twirl it!
The world's a yo-yo and its string
is wrapped around my little finger.

Fifth Stage:

Struggling, striving, speeding,
hoarding, giving....Life is a treadmill
...How do I get off? Awakening,
sleeping, eating, drinking, boaring
depressed, amusing, tragic,
procrastinating, avoiding, contacting
planning, disappointed, exhilerating
recreative...work...work....work!!!

Breaking, Slowness, Assurance,
living day by day, frankness,
reconciled, reconnoiting, reconsidering,
recouping, admitting, adjusting
reclining, reasonable, recapitulating,
rectifying, meditating, repenting,
reproachful, reproving, resignating
delaying.

Seventh Stage:

Retiring, retreating, withdrawing,
retracting, retroacting, declining,
deteriorating, degenerating, reversing,
helplessness, paralyzed, powerless,
defeat, decay, panic, destruction, extinction.

Victory:

.....At last the baby has SUCCEEDED.
He has escaped...No longer is he
frightened....HE HAS GONE BACK
TO WHERE HE CAME FROM.....GOD!



Marjorie Tesh Adams......1980.


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