The other night while working in the prison, it was time to bring a new group together. The members of the group, even though they knew each other, were quite nervous as we were embarking on a new program. The program was called "Connecting to the Self", and for men in prison, this can be quite a frightening experience. The men in prison are very used to protecting themselves and keeping themselves very guarded.

All my work focuses on the Six Defining Statements, however, when seen in their pure form they can leave a lot of confusion, so I needed a way to bring them to the men without frightening them.

The six defining statements are:

Now imagine, telling a prisoner, That Which You Choose, You Do So Out of Joy!!!! Oh yeah, that was going to go over big time. The room would have emptied in a flash. So the way I was able to bring these to the men was through the pages of a book.

When I held the book, I just felt it to be so special. Any page I looked at had meaning. Every page was unique and could stand on its own. When I read the page, it would tell a little part of the story, concept or idea that the book was trying to convey, it just couldn't tell the whole story. Every word, letter, punctuation mark used contributed to the story, told the story, was part of the story. It just wasn't the whole story.

Then I looked at ourselves. Each person unique, individual, always telling a portion of the story. I saw us as all holding various keys, questions, answers for each other and in our fear, not always sharing what we knew. When I looked at the book, it came to me - did it really matter where any of the pages fit in? A middle page was just as important and valuable to the story as the beginning, the introduction or the end page. What did it really matter where it fit in?

Take any word, read the word on it's own and you have an idea of what the word means. Add that word to a sentence, and the meaning of the word is enhanced. Let the sentence then form part of the paragraph, the chapter and eventually the story unfolds. It grows and expands. Everything stands on its own, but also contributes to the whole.

Isn't that very much like we are? When we don't fear each other, isn't every one of us unique and valuable to the story? Aren't we very much like a good mystery novel, and truthfully, aren't we all part of the mystery of the universe? The mystery is ourselves, and aren't we telling the most fascinating story of all? It is the story of ourselves! I wonder how it will end, or could the story just be infinite?