STEP 10 is not so much a task to be performed, as it is an awareness.  If the quality of your life is diminished by an unfortunate circumstance to be surrounded by small thinkers, bloviating know-it-alls, or  narrow-minded-judgmental souls, and this understandably exhausts you, I implore you to spend some time with little kids, preferably ones who are not your own, those are costly and require way to much of your undivided attention, perhaps the kids who live next door, and preferably ones who are smart, funny, witty, and have wide open minds.

It is stimulating to be around people who think big; who are open to all the prospects of all situations, who want to explore a variety of options, who want to experience new things, and it’s just ironic that in my world, the bigger thinkers are the smaller humans.  The older I grow the more I realize that many adults have lost their spark, and it is little kids who relish in the possibility of all things, they are in love with the wonder of wondering. 

If you have been in want of less toxicity in your life and you are now in the Round-Up phase, weeding out what does not make your life better, it might be that you really just need some new people, who think in a different way, ways that are more in tune with you.  Some of us need the company of people with big ideas, and finding companionship with humans who make you feel “connected” is a big deal. 

I need to be around people with spark, and a continuous want to open wider, and that is why my friendships are so valuable to me.  That I now have two little grandchildren who also have a spark is like the icing on the cupcake of my life.  If you are thinking of STEP 10 and how it might be part of your life just know that you have to participate; it requires intent and will, you might not realize that you have to make an effort to get these relationships and then cultivate them, they don’t just show up at your door (unless like me, you live next door to your amazing granddaughters.)

I am far more excited by words, thoughts, or ideas than might be considered “normal” but what is essential, as we know, with deep gratitude to Antoine de Saint-Exupery, is invisible to the eye, what is on the outside matters so much less when you understand STEP 10.  If you are feeling like your life needs a jolt, a kick, or a jump over the fence to where the grass appears to be greener, you might just be in need of some time spent with thinkers, the kind who think until their thinkers are sore…the kind with whom conversation is energizing.  This is one of the things about STEP 10 that makes me feel really good, that it’s wonderful to wonder, to be curiouser and curiouser…and for those of you who are stuck in jobs, families, or neighborhoods where you CAN’T get away from the little minds and the narrow thinkers, I urge you to use any chance you can get to wrap yourself up with people who think bigger thoughts, and if you don’t have the good fortune to have adorable brilliant grandchildren next door to you as I do, then get some books.  They don’t have to be big books, they just have to be ones that will expand your thoughts, wide…like at the dentist, Open Wide.