The Sara Manifesto

Words to Live By.

I have a birthday tradition where every year around my birthday I write The Sara Manifesto. These are the words I want to live by, I want to practice, I want to be. Some elements last from year to year, for example, “I will be true to myself,” has made the list for a few years now. It is an exercise I go through so that I consciously and deliberately know what my Life is about at this moment in time. And it’s an interesting exercise to look back over the years, because I get glimpses into my journey at certain moments in time, moments in this hero’s journey. Some years the manifesto is a challenge because I have so much I am thinking about or practicing or studying. Some years it sorts itself out quickly. 2014’s manifesto was one of those.

The Sara Manifesto 2014

Here is the Sara Manifesto for 2014:

1. I will be true to myself.
2. My criterion for achievement will be: did I have courage?
   1. Criterion is a standard on which a judgment may be made.
3. I am interested in experiencing Life, not managing it.
4. What other people think of me is none of my concern.
5. There is an inverse relationship between:
   1. Kindness and hurry;
   2. Kindness and stress;
   3. Kindness and busy.
6. When speaking, I will first ask:
   1. Is it true?
   2. Is it kind?
   3. Is it necessary?
7. Stop struggling and open myself up to what Life hands me.
   1. Throw out all those plans and sink myself in the here and now.
8. I Know when I am at-my-center and when I am off-my-center. When I am off-center I will simply feel off and act to get back to center.
   1. That answer is always within because God is within.
9. I will hold eternity and time simultaneously. And Live accordingly.
10. I will die to the world and come to birth from within.
11. Whether this works out or doesn’t, I am free.

 I write my manifesto because it helps me live in a way that is deliberate, keeping in mind filters for decision making. I notice that being alive today in America (which is nothing more or less than my experience), there are societal norms that I did not establish but that affect me, unrelenting messages to consume things I don’t want or need, and pressure to conform to ideas that are not my own. Therefore, I write my manifesto as a birthday present to myself and then go about the practice of practice, which is the practice of life.

Try it. You have nothing to lose but the loss of your way.