Dear Lori, That was beautifully written! :) Your personal experience is a perfect illustration of why it's so important to deeply penetrate your character and clearly define the root of things. This shows itself when it comes to the Step Two work of actually transforming the negative character traits. The real secret to self-transformation is taking small bites. Take only as big a bite as you are absolutely certain you can chew, swallow, digest and transform. In other words, dissect your traits into their smallest, most specific components and then address one component at a time. Plan your course of action in the transformation of this one small component and pursue it until you have successfully transformed that one little component. Then move on to the next component that you're absolutely certain you can chew, swallow, digest and transform. Even the hugest, most terrifying negative trait can be overcome with this methodical bit-by-bit approach. This is the way of Water. My best to you, :) Rawn Clark 29 Jan 2003 rawnclark@... rawn@... http://www.ABardonCompanion.com http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BardonPraxis