Do We Plan Our Lives Before We're Born?

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   Robert Schwartzposted 15 years ago

   May 7, 2003.  I remember that day well, because it was the day on which my life changed, the day that launched me on the path to writing the book Your Soul’s Plan: Discovering the Real Meaning of the Life You Planned Before You Were Born.
   
        I was 40 at the time, working as a self-employed marketing and communications consultant and feeling profoundly unfulfilled with my life.  I often had the feeling that if I were to fall off the face of the Earth, none of my clients would notice.  They would simply plug someone else into my role and continue along.
   
        Yet, at the same time I had a feeling that there was a higher purpose to my life.  I just didn’t know what it was.  And so, in my search for that higher calling, I did something on that fateful day in 2003 that I had never done before: I had a session with a psychic medium.
   
        The medium introduced me to the concept of spirit guides – highly evolved, nonphysical beings with whom we plan our lives before birth and who then guide us through our lives after we incarnate.  Through the medium, I was able to speak with my guides.  They told me that I myself had planned many of my greatest challenges in life - and that I had done so before I was born.
   
        I might have dismissed this as some sort of elaborate fantasy, except that my guides knew literally everything about me.  They knew not only what I had done in life, but also what I had thought and felt.  Private thoughts and feelings that I had never shared with anyone.
   
        For example, five years earlier I had been going through a very difficult time in my personal life.  One day, alone in the privacy of my home, and silently in my mind, I said a prayer to God.  I said, “God, I can’t get through this alone.  Please send help.”  I had completely forgotten about this prayer, but my guides knew about it, and they reminded me of it.  They added, “Your prayer was answered,” by which they meant that additional nonphysical guidance had been sent.  I was astounded.
   
        As you can imagine, when certain beings know literally everything about you, they have a great deal of credibility.
   
        So I was listening in rapt attention when they went on to tell me why I had planned some of my greatest challenges.  In the days and weeks after the session with the medium, this information was constantly on my mind.  It allowed me to review the course of my life and, for the first time in many instances, see a deeper purpose to the seemingly bad things that had happened.  For me, this was deeply healing.
   
        I realized I was on to a concept that could bring similar healing to other people.  I started to think about writing a book about it.
   
        At the same time, I began to have metaphysical experiences of my own.  I would like to tell you about one in particular that profoundly informed my research and forever altered the way I look at the world.
   
        One day, I was working in my home office and decided to take a break and go for a walk.  As I was meandering down the sidewalk, I was suddenly overcome by a feeling of overwhelming unconditional love for every person I saw.
   
        I remember this experience with crystal clarity.  The first person I was a cab driver sitting behind the wheel of his cab, waiting for a fare to come along.  I looked at this man – a complete stranger to me – and felt nothing but pure, unconditional love for him.  Then I noticed a barbershop on the corner.  I looked through the window and saw a barber cutting someone’s hair.  Again, I felt overwhelming love for these people who I did not know and had never seen before.  Then I noticed a young mother pushing an infant in a stroller down the sidewalk.  Once more I felt the same unconditional love for these people.  Everywhere I looked, every time I saw a person, I felt tremendous love flowing over me and through me.
   
        Though I had never heard or read of an experience like this, I knew immediately and intuitively what was happening: I was in enhanced communion with my own soul.  It was as though my soul were saying to me, “This love is who you really are.  This is your true nature.”
   
        I believe that my soul gifted me with this experience because when I went on to research and write Your Soul’s Plan, every pre-birth blueprint I examined was based on unconditional love.  This was true even when the souls were scripting a “negative” role for someone to play.
   
        Had I not had that experience of myself as unconditional love, I would have found exactly the same results in my research.  But I think there would always have been a little voice at the back of my head saying, “How do you know any of this is true?”  Well, I know it’s true because I experienced it myself.  And so I can state to you with absolute confidence and certainty that I believe that we as souls are made quite literally from the energy of unconditional love.
   
        In order to research people’s pre-birth plans, I collaborated with four very gifted mediums and channels, including one who is able to hear the conversations people had before they were born with their future parents, children, spouses, friends, and other loved ones.  I put these conversations verbatim into the book.  The people I interviewed had planned such challenges as physical illness, having handicapped children, deafness, blindness, drug addiction, alcoholism, losing a loved one, and severe accidents.
   
        Why do we plan before birth to experience challenges?  I found four primary reasons. 
   
        First, challenges allow us to balance karma from past lives.  Karma is sometimes conceptualized as “cosmic debt,” but I think of it more as unbalanced energy.  Let’s say, for example, that in a past life one person was physically ill and another person was the caretaker.  When these two people transition back into spirit and have their life review, they will have a sense of unbalanced energy.  One way to create balance would be to switch roles.  The one who was ill now plans to be the caretaker, while the one who was the caretaker now plans to experience illness.  What makes these life blueprints so challenging is that once in body, neither soul will remember the pre-birth plan.
   
        Second, we plan challenges in order to heal.  For example, Penelope, the deaf woman in my book’s chapter on deafness and blindness, planned to be born completely deaf because in a past life she had heard the gunshots that killed her mother.  She was a small child when the murder occurred.  She was traumatized by her mother’s death and went on to commit suicide later in that incarnation.  In this lifetime, she sought to focus on self-healing and wanted to make sure that her healing would not be hindered by a similar trauma.  In her pre-birth planning session, her spirit guide asks, “My dear . . . would you prefer to be born deaf so that no sound will ever remind you of those sounds again?”  Penelope replies, “Yes, that is what I want and what I wish to do.”
   
        Third, we plan challenges to be of service to others.  In the chapter on physical illness, I write about Jon, a homosexual man who planned to have AIDS so that he could teach tolerance to humanity.  In his pre-birth planning session, we heard Jon conferring with the soul of the future loves who would – at his request – transmit the virus to him.  The future lover says, “There is an issue larger than all of the personal benefit of contracting this illness.  We can teach our elders, honor them, and provide them with a valuable opportunity to experience, learn, and grow.”  Jon, therefore, is not someone to be judged or scorned, but rather someone we may thank for having the raw courage to plan such a bold mission in service to others.
   
        Lastly, life challenges allow us to know ourselves as love.  By this I mean not simply that we are loving, although certainly that is true, but that we are quite literally made of the energy of love.  In our nonphysical Home, we experience no contrast to ourselves and therefore cannot fully understand our nature as love.  On Earth, in a realm of duality and stark contrast, we often encounter a lack of love.  As we choose in the face of such experiences to give and receive love freely and unconditionally, we remember who we really are.
   
   *    *    *
   Robert Schwartz is the author of Your Soul’s Plan: Discovering the Real Meaning of the Life You Planned Before You Were Born.  A free PDF with a large sample of the book is available on Mr. Schwartz’s web site at wwwyoursoulsplancom

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      Brenda Durhamposted 15 years agoin reply to this

      You should've vetted those spirit guides.   It's obvious God didn't send them.

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         mistyhorizon2003posted 15 years agoin reply to this

         Why not Brenda? I don't think anyone can knock what they don't fully understand, and whilst Robert should probably have published this in a hub, and not on a forum, I think there is merit and possibilities in what he says in my own experience, (and believe me when I say I am no whacko)!

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   Paragliderposted 15 years ago

   No

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   manlypoetrymanposted 15 years ago

   
   "Get a hub....sha,na,na,na...na,na,na,na,Get a hub...sha,na,na,na...na,na,na,na..."
   
   "hey, just a little advise, my friend. Put all this concentrated effort into a Hub...that's how it woks...'round here. You know...now that your all signed up here...and all!" Good Fortune with the writings...and like ParaGlider juz said, "No".

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      Pearldiverposted 15 years agoin reply to this

      Couldn't have said it better myself
      
      Even though he's spamming the site!

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   Anti-Valentineposted 15 years ago

   Probably a good idea on putting it in a hub, Robert. No offence.

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   Denno66posted 15 years ago

   Great question; to which I answer: Absolutely! But, the above hubbers are correct; your message would reach a larger audience through a Hub.

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   Hierocrypticposted 15 years ago

   This is a very thought-provoking question you pose. I think it is possible we make plans. I wonder then, how can I know what plans I may have made? This is a question worthy of reflection. Thank you for the stimulus and prompt.

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   shanekrugerposted 15 years ago

   We Can't

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   poetlorraineposted 15 years ago

   to answer your question, no i don't tink so, and that comment was just a little lengthy for the forums.....

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   aquaseaCreativeposted 15 years ago

   Maybe. The whole story was a bit much for me tonight (v tired) but going off the title - it's an interesting idea. I've heard it suggested that a soul chooses its parents based on what it needs to learn and grow.
   
   So maybe.. I don't discount it but neither am I convinced.

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    prettydarkhorseposted 15 years ago

    I will take a look at it if it is put in a hub, good day to you!

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       mistyhorizon2003posted 15 years agoin reply to this

       Me too, just too long for a forum, but suspect it would make an interesting read in a hub, and I am inclined to suspect your ideas may be close to my own

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    Shealy Healyposted 15 years ago

    I tend not to believe we plan our life before we are born here. I feel there are a mixture of circumstances that actually create our life's path. We seem to have free choice at every moment in the day. Then, that free choice seems to be influenced by the other energy bodies around us.

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    Kori Lee F.P.posted 15 years ago

    I believe we do and it is more like a blueprint.  That means it is a guideline- with contracts- agreements with particular souls.  The blueprint covers things like parents, place and time of birth, general intentions and major lessons you want to address.  For example, I am sure I put in becoming a tennis player and I have an agreement with my mom and we decided on this before we came.  My mother and I do not have some random relationship.  Also in some belief systems the negative-villians of your life are souls who volunteered for that job.  Nothing in random- not even the rapes and murders, earthquakes.  Sorry folks we are here for lessons- we are infinite beings having a finite experience.

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    Denno66posted 15 years ago

    I concur, Kori, to the letter.

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    getitriteposted 15 years ago

    I believe we are unconscious before we are born.

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    prettydarkhorseposted 15 years ago

    NO. When our parents met and have the union of love and the 46 chromosomes met, we were fertilized, and after the start of conception, our brain develops thereafter. I dont know when do we start to plan our lives, its different from every individual.

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    earnestshubposted 15 years ago

    I do not see how we could plan our life before birth. Planning a life would seem to require more brain development than exists in the fetus.

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       tantrumposted 15 years agoin reply to this

       It seems he planned to write a book
       And spam forums all his life

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          earnestshubposted 15 years agoin reply to this

          Do you think maybe that life plan could be developed by a fetus?
          It does not seem to be much of a plan!

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             mistyhorizon2003posted 15 years agoin reply to this

             I think he is coming from the angle that the Soul makes the decision as to what it will experience in the next lifetime, not the fetus itself.

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                rebekahELLEposted 15 years agoin reply to this

                I agree. who are we to determine when life begins or ends? I have read that we choose our parents to obtain the lessons we need in this lifetime.

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                   mistyhorizon2003posted 15 years agoin reply to this

                   Yes, I have read a lot about this too, and it makes a great deal of sense logically if we are meant to spiritually advance.

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       Rick Marlowposted 15 years agoin reply to this

       He said he was getting karma from past lives.That`s how he planned before he was born.He may have planned this life 3 or 4 lives back.Who knows?

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          Rick Marlowposted 15 years agoin reply to this

          For those that know me to be a believer,This comment was meant as humor. Iwas trying to incite Earnest.Those that know me , know I don`t support such rubbish.As Brenda Durham says, theres only 2 kinds of spirits and this is not of God.

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    Brenda Durhamposted 15 years ago

    Of course there are possibilities in what he said.
    Not about being able to plan one's life before birth, because only God can do that.
    But indeed there are possibilities that "spirit guides" can have an affect on our lives,  IF we listen to them.
    As far as why God didn't send them,  that's obvious, like I said.
    
    There are two kinds of "spirits" other than what's inside each of us.   Those that come from God or are sent by God,   and those who are not.
    
    When God tossed Lucifer out of Heaven,  1/3 of the angels went with him.   The Bible says he walks around looking for people's souls to devour.  He and that 1/3 have power,  IF you give them power over your mind, your desires, your body, your whatever.
    
    The Word says to give "no place" to the devil.
    If you consult with mediums and such,  you're giving place to the devil.
    
    I prefer to listen to the promise God makes us that His angels have charge over us,  watch over us,  when we are open to HIS Love,  not to Lucifer's.

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       mistyhorizon2003posted 15 years agoin reply to this

       Genuinely no offence intended here Brenda, but when you say "Not about being able to plan one's life before birth, because only God can do that". how do you know that this is the case, and how do you know God wouldn't want our souls to mature enough to decide what we need to "experience" in our next lifetime in order to spiritually advance. I think this is very possible!
       
       I also have to disagree that " The Word says to give "no place" to the devil.
       If you consult with mediums and such,  you're giving place to the devil.", as having experienced this first hand, only good ever came out of it, plus when it said in the Bible "Thou shalt not consort with Spirits" this is on record as having been deliberately changed by a certain King centuries ago when the original text actually translated as "thou shalt not consort with EVIL spirits". A huge difference in meaning simply by omitting one word!

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          Brenda Durhamposted 15 years agoin reply to this

          "On record", is it?  hmm..
          
          I suppose that King forgot to change all the other verses that speak against witchcraft and sorcery, etc.....?

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    Jeramiposted 15 years ago

    Robert,Misty; sounds as though you might be interested in reading a series of books written by Jane Roberts called the Seth series.I read most of these books decades ago. At the time I found them very interesting and thought provoking. They were found in the occult section of the book stores. My Christian friends told me that these kind of books were inspired by Satan. I read them anyway. For the most part they did not seem at the time to be in direct conflict with what is actually written in scripture except for the "man is born to die but once" part. When we read between the lines and unleash our imagination almost anything could be perceived to be Satan inspired. I don't think that it is a bad thing to think outside the BOX. Just don't get carried away in negative forces. know when to quit and walk away.

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       mistyhorizon2003posted 15 years agoin reply to this

       These do sound very interesting, thanks for the tip, I shall look out for them next time I am visiting the local library

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    Sexy jontyposted 15 years ago

    I don't think so .....
    
    but heredity problems also comes along our way ...... which make us think like our father and grandfather ......

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    mistyhorizon2003posted 15 years ago

    Well, each to their own beliefs I guess, but my personal experience of mediums, (and I mean good ones, not the blatant fakes who pump for information), has been very positive and healing, certainly not evil.
    
    Also, let's not forget, the Bible was written by men, not by God, and is open to misinterpretation, mistranslation and manipulation by the Church, (and King James VI of Scotland and King James I of England, the same person, overhauled much of the Bible to read the way he thought it should). Also after the civil war in Britain, England was under puritan rule, headed by Oliver Cromwell, who enforced a very extreme version of the Protestant faith, and it was under this regime that "witch" hunting, (under which term we can almost certainly include persons with mediumistic / psychic abilities), reached its zenith, and thousands of innocent women and children were killed needlessly. 
    The original Pilgrim Fathers would have brought many of these ideas with them to the USA as they left Britain when many of these leanings were very strong and enforced.

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       earnestshubposted 15 years agoin reply to this

       I enjoyed this post Mistyhorizon. You have explained a lot about the when and why-for's of religion's many changes to the original biblical text.
       I do not know much about mediums, I found it interesting that you have experience with one of the unexplained phenomenas though, and will take a look.

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          mistyhorizon2003posted 15 years agoin reply to this

          Thanks for the compliment Earnest, well I do like to back up my beliefs with evidence wherever I can, but sometimes it is a no win situation, as here on the religion forums no-one ever wants to consider they might... just might.... be wrong.... or brainwashed, misinformed etc LOL

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          mistyhorizon2003posted 15 years agoin reply to this

          If you are interested in my Medium experiences Earnest, I mention them in two hubs (if I remember rightly). One is the hub about how "Bowel Cancer Stole my Husband" and the other is about my time "Living with a Control Freak". I think the first one contains the most interesting information though.
          I am sure you can find them if you want to have a read of them

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    Jeramiposted 15 years ago

    I don't think that anyone      EVER  planed my life.
         If they did I have a bone to pick with them.
    
        PS  that's hillbilly talk.   A BONE  ta pick wti um

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    Denno66posted 15 years ago

    Dagnabbit!

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       Jeramiposted 15 years agoin reply to this

       .
       
          Shucks darnit

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          Denno66posted 15 years agoin reply to this

          Gangdiggity!

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             Jeramiposted 15 years agoin reply to this

                 I'll be horn swaggled

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                Denno66posted 15 years agoin reply to this

                Weeeee Doggy!

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       mistyhorizon2003posted 15 years agoin reply to this

       I so love your Avatar Denn066, reminds me of our neighbouring Island of Sark, where they have sheep racing once a year (also using small toy jockeys on the sheep). People travel over there especially to go the races, and there are even bookies so you can place bets on the winners.
       
       Cute

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    Jeramiposted 15 years ago

    That mad  me tyrd

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       Denno66posted 15 years agoin reply to this

       Yuk Kyuk.

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    Mishaposted 15 years ago

    Oftentimes I think we do. Unfortunately there is no way to check it.

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       Jeramiposted 15 years agoin reply to this

          Aint nutin umposibal;;;   Tha umposibal just taks mor swetin ta get er don

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          Denno66posted 15 years agoin reply to this

          Now yer tinkin' with yer noggin ;p

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    Mishaposted 15 years ago

    LOL

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    Denno66posted 15 years ago

    No Misha, actually there is no way to tell, but if things feel like they're going in the right direction, then you could be correct.

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       Mishaposted 15 years agoin reply to this

       LOL Sorry, did not mean to interrupt your fun. Mine was more of a statement than a question.

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          Denno66posted 15 years agoin reply to this

          No need to be sorry, friend,  I'm equally comfortable in either venue.

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    Jeramiposted 15 years ago

    I hurd that the frost is a comin;   Are ya lookin after yer pumkins "

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       Denno66posted 15 years agoin reply to this

       Hey na, you jus mine yer own dang punkins neh.

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    Jeramiposted 15 years ago

    You win  ...  Dont tink I wanna laf no mo ,       
    Tanks.   When I waz in mi up bringin folks round me talkd lk daat. A  most fergot lik it was lik.

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    Denno66posted 15 years ago

    I gets ya. Itz kina tuff keepin up tha fancy talk ;p I'm headin to yer page to become a fan y'all.

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    Denno66posted 15 years ago

    Hmm, guess he's plum-tuckered out ;p

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       Jeramiposted 15 years agoin reply to this

          yep im a GETIN READY TA FALL DOWN but ium a thinkin I kin han on a bit longer

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    earnestshubposted 15 years ago

    Thanks for that! I have been hunting through your many hubs for a title. It's OK though, as usual I read something else anyway!
    You write so good!

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       mistyhorizon2003posted 15 years agoin reply to this

       Darn it Earnest...... now you've got me blushing again!!!

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    ralwusposted 15 years ago

    Now  I have known dumb and I have known shit  and this is both.

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       mistyhorizon2003posted 15 years agoin reply to this

       Ralwus me old mate, you need to be more specific, otherwise no-one knows who you mean, or which side of the fence (if any) you are on !!!

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          ralwusposted 15 years agoin reply to this

          The   original question my dear.

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             mistyhorizon2003posted 15 years agoin reply to this

             LOL, maybe me, but I am none the wiser and off to bed now. Hope to have an answer by the morning

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    earnestshubposted 15 years ago

    Good night Misty,

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    Ms Kelpieposted 15 years ago

    Great post. an enlightening approach i had never heard before. loving and knowing yourself is so important.. it allows you to return those feelings to others. thank you.

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