A new generation is growing up, and growing up fast! Guess who that new generation is? You and your friends, of course! One day you will be running the world...really! Don't worry; there are a lot of years between now and then. During that time you will learn so much, have a lot of fun and make many, many decisions. We want you to make the decisions that will allow you to grow up strong and happy!

So what exactly is enlightened? en•light•en ( n-l t n)

Good question! Why don’t we get this cleared up right up front? It’s an important concept. Let me get you thinking by listing first what enlightened IS, and then what enlightened is NOT.

What Enlightened IS:

• Confident

• Aware

• Open-minded

• Sharp

• Considerate

• Enthusiastic

• Generous

• Respectful

• Sympathetic

• Grateful

• Loyal

What Enlightened is NOT:

• Unkind

• Selfish

• Ignorant

• Jealous

• Spiteful

• Unsupportive

• Disloyal

• Afraid

• Unthinking

• Ungrateful

Why the heck is this important? Great question! First, review the list. Decide which list describes you, and which list you want to describe you. It’s important to think about that for a while.

Review the list one more time. Which of the traits most appeal to you? Who would you want to be friends with? If you had to choose only one type of person to exist in this world, which one would it be? Yes, that’s a set up and I know you know the answer I’m looking for. You prefer the enlightened traits. You would rather be friends with people in the enlightened group and would choose the enlightened group as the only group left on earth. Sure, it’s much nicer to be around positive, uplifting people then the opposite. So there’s reason number one. It makes life nicer, people nicer and a nicer place to exist in the world. Further, when YOU are the enlightened one, you are a much more pleasant person to hang around. And, guess what, you as an enlightened person are HAPPIER and live a HAPPIER life? Isn’t that reason enough??? I sure think so.

Is that it?

You will be happy and other people will be nicer to be around. What more could you want than that? :) Well, there are extra perks, believe it or not. Being enlightened means caring about others. It means helping others. It crosses city lines, state lines, and national borders and crosses continents. It leads to having empathy for someone 5,000 miles away that you’ve never met just because you are a caring person. It means wanting to help someone 5.000 miles away because you don’t want anyone on this earth to be unhappy, hurt or in harm’s way. It creates a global connection and global family. Can you imagine if that’s how we all thought? What would happen to prejudices? What would happen to violence? Would we have wars? I’m not going to answer those questions for you; that would be too easy. That’s something for you to think about and figure out. We’ll discuss this more in our next article.