Meet the Forum Leaders

[deborah]

For those of you who are new to the forum, WELCOME! Carol Bowman's Past Life Forum,(formally known as The Children's Past Life Forum) is a place where personal exploration, sharing, validation and new friendships happen everyday!

I am the mother of three children, and a grandmother of four beautiful grandchildren. I am a college professor, an artist and an activist for children’s issues and children’s rights. I have traveled and shown my art work internationally, lecturing over eighteen times on three different continents. Russia, South America, and Africa.

I am the US representative for three International non-profit organizations aimed at benefiting and aiding children. I teach color theory, art history, drawing, color and design, watercolor and mixed media painting classes. For those of you who are interested, you are welcome to check out my website. https://deborahbarr.squarespace.com/

The most obvious reason for helping here on the forum is I am in full support of Carol and Steve’s endeavors. But there is an added interest for me -- a professional one. There is a shattering reality that comes with remembering past lives; the reality that I will be, and you will be -- again a child. Although obvious, the implications are rarely talked about. I am by profession an artist and an activist for children and children's rights. I believe in a personal and social responsibility. This forum, in it’s multi-layered purposes aids in that movement.

Reincarnation is a 'belief' that the soul returns, lifetime after lifetime, and although I have found many people who have experienced memories during regressions, dreams and or visions - it remains 'valid' only for the person with the experience.

I have spent twenty years here, sharing with some wonderful people the possibilities regarding past lives. During this time, something has become very clear to me -- sharing helps others to grow and there are 'validations' happening within these shared experiences for myself and for others.

There is someone from this forum whom I met in 2006 who has become very near and dear to my heart. Ailish. Ailish has brought joy to my memories of Italy and reminded me that reincarnation really does matter.

Beneath the Surface - my book

I hope members feel comfortable here and find the site informative. There is a lot of work in our FAQ and Archive sections. ENJOY!

 

[Steve]

Meet the Executive Moderator (Steve)

FORUM OWNER

Dear Forum Members,

Though Carol has published her life’s story for all to see, not much has been revealed about me—except that in Children’s Past Lives I always seem to be fetching things for her.

When I’m not putting out fires on the Forum, or messing up the childpastlives.org website, I’m working as a business writer and communications consultant, writing not journalism but reports, marketing pieces, business plans, etc. I’ve done a lot of work for the financial services and insurance industries, but now I’m working almost exclusively for Internet companies. Actually, I’m in the process of changing direction now by launching a new consultancy to coach entrepreneurs in their presentations to venture capitalists and investors for start-up financing. I also help them write their business plans. In general, any time a message needs to be shaped and packaged to make a clear communication, I can do it. This is basically my role when helping Carol write her books, too.

I teach part-time at the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania. I teach public speaking and communications, mostly to the MBA’s. I love the intensity and speed of Wharton, and participate as much as I can in seminars and speakers that deal with the Internet. I also coach student entrepreneur teams in their start-up presentations.

I graduated from Harvard a long time ago with a degree in Music and Visual Composition. Music has always been a big part of my life, and sneaks into my writing. (Has anyone ever noticed all of the musical puns in Children’s Past Lives?) Carol and I met for the first time right after we graduated from college, even though we had friends in common at Harvard. She went to Simmons College in Boston. We eloped in 1974, moved to within sight of the Old North Bridge in Concord where my first job was teaching school. Then we moved to Asheville, North Carolina where I brokered commercial real estate—and where the seeds for Children’s Past Lives were sown. Sarah was born in 1979 and Chase was born in 1982 (he turned 18 yesterday) at home. Carol was a stay-at-home Mom despite the sacrifice it took to do so because we both felt it was important for the kids’ upbringing (or “rearing”, as they say in NC). Before the Children’s Past Lives thing started happening, Carol and I championed the first-ever tree-protection ordinance in Asheville. We moved to outside Philadelphia in 1988 and the rest is either history or too much to write now.

Everything she describes in the book is true in every detail about how she discovered children’s past lives, pursued the books and research, wrote articles, got on Oprah. People ask, “What did I think while all this was happening?” I was skeptical at first, thinking it was just another one of Carol’s crazy ideas (though I must admit that, more than once her crazy ideas have proved to be real). But now after seeing all the cases and all the evidence, I’m convinced that it is all true. The Ian Stevenson material, especially, is undeniable. We report only a tiny slice of his work, only a taste of his many amazing cases, in both of the books (I wrote much of the Stevenson chapter in both), which is always the hardest chapter to write because we’re tempted to include many more cases than we have room for (the first draft of the Stevenson chapter in Return from Heaven was more than 20,000 words; the final is about 6,500). I’m also convinced because I see case after case appear daily in Carol’s email, all different but always with the same characteristics in common. There’s no way this can’t be real if it happens so often to so many people, all who are discovering this in isolation and think they are the only ones to have a child with such memories.

Carol and I wrote both books together in a partnership that is so incredibly close and effective, it’s a story in itself. Even we can’t believe it some of the time. I spent a year and a half, full time, helping Carol with Children’s Past Lives, and a year on Return from Heaven. We’ve evolved a process where we balance each other beautifully. She does the right-brain work. She originates the ideas—all of the research and main ideas are hers—and invests it with her feelings and personality. I do the left-brain work. After she writes the first draft, we go back and forth with each subsequent draft of each chapter (as many as ten drafts, even before sending it off to the publisher for a few more editing rounds). I re-organize the logic and compose the flow, and even write some of the research-intensive sections, like the Stevenson and my favorite, “Dogma Bites Man.” I do most of the editing. But even when I make a lot of changes and suggestions, Carol knows exactly what she likes or doesn’t like. We argue a lot. It’s very intense. Sometimes we argue for fifteen minutes over synonyms for a single word. Sometimes we revisit the merits of a particular paragraph a half-dozen time over the course of a few weeks. But the miracle is that we don’t take any of the arguments personally. We still like each other at the end of the day and wake up the next day to do it again, day after day.

Whoa, I got carried away. I guess I’ve wanted to tell “the rest of the story” for a long time. Am I up to date with this? I do all the website and email stuff, but that’s not too interesting. The kids? Sarah (she’s called Johanna by her friends) is a senior at Amherst College majoring in English Literature and with no idea what she’ll do after she graduates. Chase would be a senior in high school except he decided to homeschool for his last year. He’s still a drummer (with a CD in the works), and an actor, writer, and videographer, and has his sites set on the New Media program at Temple University.

Love and Light to you all, and thank you for your support,


Steve

 

[Steve]

I really am thrilled by the success of this Forum. As I’ve said in recent posts, I’m surprised that it has taken on such a life of its own and is so important to the personal and spiritual lives of so many people. I know it’s valuable as well to people who visit once or twice because I get emails from them. And it is helping the research effort in children’s past lives, though I expect it to become much more important in the coming years as it reaches a certain critical mass of career researchers.

I confess I don’t have time to read every post. The Forum is only one part of the total effort I am putting together (in my “spare” time) to help Carol’s work. You only see part of it. Thank God for Pat Lawrence, who has taken over the day-to-day leadership of the Forum. And now that’s it’s gotten too big for one person to manage, we have our wonderful new moderators to help. I’m really excited about this new phase of team leadership. I’m glad I can trust the Forum to these good people, and to the regulars who all help in their own ways. This growth and sharing is all consistent with our vision for the Forum and the Children’s Past Lives Research Center. We hope that eventually many, many people will make it their own, working together to understand the phenomenon better and spread the word that children do remember.

Carol and I believe that if enough people know and believe that children can remember their past lives, it will change things for the better. We believe it will have the power to change how we relate to our children, change psychology and child development theory, and have a profound effect on how we view our own spiritual purpose. That’s why we work so hard and long at this, and why I’m getting so totally carried away at writing my little “intro.”

We work *very* hard to make the writing as good as possible. We want it to be a joy to read as well as convey important ideas. Also, neither of us is a natural writer, the type who can dash off great prose in a couple of drafts. We have to work hard to make it effortless to read--there are a number of very specific things we do in the writing to do that. We love it when we get reports that a reader "couldn't put the book down" and read all the way to the end. That gives us great satisfaction.

We work just as hard with the selection and sequencing of ideas. We know that if we get it right, it will seem to the reader as if the ideas are obvious and flow naturally one after another, like anybody could have come up with them. That's what takes two years of gruelling intellectual work. For every idea in the books, we left two on the cutting room floor, so to speak.

The Children's Past Lives Research Center exists in name only. Look at the first page of the website. It's our vision.


Steve

 

[Eevee]

Administrator - Forum Archivist: She is responsible for updating the three existing archives with a variety of cases, memories and experiences from different members. The Archivist also edits older threads of value for easier readability, as well as ensures that links within the archives are working properly.

What can I tell about myself? I feel there is not much to tell... I am just an ordinary housewife, raising two children (who are already teenagers now) on my own. I divorced when they were still little. I used to be a medical secretary, and worked at the local hospital here. I gave up my job to stay home with my children. And now, unfortunately, since last september, I am on health care, because I had some back problems, needed surgery, and I am still revalidating.

I guess I believed in reincarnation since I was a teenager. I remember at that age, I started reading books on the subject. When my son was two years old, he told me a few things that I recognized as possible PL memories. I feel that, if at that time I could have gotten advice, and could have talked with likeminded people about it, I could have guided my son better when he was talking about this. I still regret that.

I believe it was in 2001 that I got an internet connection, and one of the first things I did a search for, was 'reincarnation'. And this forum was one of the first hits of the search engine. It took me several months before I registered - I am rather shy and the internet was still new for me, and I never participated before in a forum.

From the moment I started posting, I felt 'at home' here, it was just wonderful how people tried to help answer my questions, how they gave their honest opinions about my experiences, how they even helped me recognize my abilities and taught me about meditation, dream recall, and much more. I felt finally I had found a place where I could share my deepest spiritual feelings, and I was amazed at how many people had the same or similar experiences, and had the same questions and feelings as I did.

I read both Carol's books, from the library, and learned a lot from them. I just couldn't put them down before I finished reading them

Well, my interest in reincarnation stayed, and visiting this board became a daily routine for me. And a while ago I was asked to be a moderator, which surprised me, but also gave me a good feeling. Now I could do something in return for this board and the people on it, so I accepted.

I was also very delighted to have the opportunity to meet Carol Bowman in person last year, when she was giving a workshop here in Belgium. I really enjoyed our conversations that weekend. And I bought a copy of 'Childrens past lives' then, in which she wrote a personal message for me .

So, here I am, in Belgium, online when most of the (American) members are asleep . When I log on in the morning, I am always amazed at how active the forum has been when I was in dreamland...and I often feel I have a lot to catch up ! I guess that is about all I can come up with right now....

Love to all,


Eevee

Please click on the following link to see some of Eevee’s memories compiled in our Archives:

Eevee's Memories

 

[Carol]

WHAT??? You caught me, Deborah! Sometimes I feel like I'm hiding in the corner watching everyone; now I'll come out of hiding.

You already know all about me, so it's such a treat to learn about the diverse crew that's running this show. And, it is running so well, thanks to all of your efforts. I've said it before, but I'll say it again: there wouldn't be a Forum without your contributions. I can't thank you enough for taking the time from kids, jobs, pets, making dinner, watering the plants, and the 1,000 other things everyone must do to get through the day to make this happen. I can't believe how long some of you (Deborah, Megan, and others) have been at this. After Patricia Lawrence left the Forum some years ago, I really thought that that was the end. But Deborah, Megan, and others (who have come and gone) rallied to the cause. A round of applause.

After a year of bad health, I feel like I'm back in the saddle and have to make up for lost time. I turned 55 in October and feel that I better get going on some new projects--maybe even writing a reincarnation novel. There, I said it. That's all I'll say about it, though, because I'm not sure I can pull it off.

Steve is prodding me to write about past life regression to add to the Forum and my personal website. I might start a thread entertaining questions about past life regression, just to see what people want to know--and if I can answer the questions.

My personal life has gotten easier now that my kids are finished with college and we're really empty-nesters. The kids are grown up: Sarah is in NYC, over-worked at Random House as an assistant editor, and with a boyfriend, so we cherish whatever time we get to spend with her. Chase is close by in Philadelphia busy with his band (Simple and Supreem), his videography business, Cut to the Chase Productions, and his lovely girlfriend. All of these changes are good.

What else can I say? Life is rich, challenging, and most often fun.

I despair at the state of our country and planet at times, but believe that life will go on--in some form, somewhere. My prayer is that we enjoy our time here, learn about ourselves, and help others.

Wishing all of you a healthy, happy, peaceful, and productive year.

Thanks for being here.


Carol

 

[Tinkerman]

Executive Director: directs activities of the staff and is in charge of the Forum.

Hello friends. I am the Tinkerman. I wear many hats, but as a matter of introduction I'll share a little of who or what I am. First I am a plainsman, by birth and by spirit. I feel apart of the land I live upon. I am a retired police sergeant who returned to his roots in 1990. I have four children, all successful professionals, a diplomat, a banker, a writer and a social worker, quite a spread, and I'm proud of them.

I am the editor and owner of the local newspaper. And last but not least I run a cow/calf operation on our ranch on the beautiful high prairie. I would not be successful at any of these without my good wife and a number of faithful employees.

I came to this forum after a series of dreams and encounters that shook my world of reality. Without going into detail (I've done that on the forum in several places), I came to see reincarnation as the only credible explanation for what was happening to me. I have very vivid memories of my life at the turn of the century. I sought professional assistance through a regression therapist via the IARRT. The experience altered me forever. I found this forum a couple of years ago and have been hanging around ever since.

My interest now is on the spiritual journey. I seek the numinous. My past lives were as my own great grandfather, as a Native American in this same area and a more ancient life as a wondering holyman/medicine man in a mid European region.

I am honored to help out on this forum in return for the inspiration and respect I have found here. I have seen it evolve into a place for serious discussion and friendly debate.

The Tinkerman

Please click on the following link to see some of Tinkerman’s memories compiled in our Archives:

Tinkerman's Memories

 

[ChrisR]

Administrator

Greetings fellow members

Here's a little bit about me, I was born and raised in the city of Gloucester in England in 1965, and since the age of 18 I've moved around to different parts of the country. At the moment I live in the small seaside town of Exmouth on the south coast, where I've been settled since 1989.

I was married for 11 years, but divorced in 2001, and I now live with three housemates (and three pet tarantulas) in a shared house. I am currently a mature student, mid way through a foundation degree course in teaching & learning which requires me to volunteer in a local primary school.

When I'm not helping out in the forum, I spend some of my spare time playing my guitar, I'm also very interested in astronomy and I have a very large telescope (which is in need of a little attention at the moment) but I have seen some of the most awesome sights through that little eyepiece!

I have two lovely Goddaughters aged 4 and 2, who I see nearly every day, and I love to take them out whenever I get the chance. I also sponsor a little girl in Ecuador, and we communicate regularly through writing letters and sending pictures to each other. I hope very much that we will get the opportunity to meet each other one day.

I learnt about reincarnation at a very early age, but I never really associated it with my own experiences until many years later. I knew from about 3 years of age that I was meant to be someone else, my body felt very unfamiliar to me, I had nightmares from as far back as I can remember, in which I found myself in the body that I felt I should have been in, it was all very confusing for a little boy. The nightmares persisted for many years and eventually brought me to this forum, where I've met some lovely people, received so much support, and made some friends for life.

Chris -

 

[helz_belz]

Moderator

Hello everyone, and greetings from England!

I'm Helz, a lass in my thirties, born and bred in southeast England. I work in museums (a lot of time spent sorting out databases!), my background and passion is in natural sciences, especially geology and zoology, but I like to learn a something about everything! When I'm not at work I'm usually to be found visiting other museums, zoos, birdwatching or walking in the park, most often with a sketchbook or camera in hand. I also enjoy yoga and meditation.

I first came across this forum in 2006, when going through a difficult existential patch in my life, a difficult patch that the forum really helped me to overcome. I lurked around for many years, until 2012, when my own past life memories began to surface; at first I only remembered one life, as a soldier in the First World War, but since then others have also bubbled up from my subconscious. Although each has come with its own challenges and difficulties, each one has also come with healing, and added a layer of understanding to my current life.

As a moderator here I hope to help others in a safe, supportive space, as the forum has helped me; to pass the help and healing onwards.

 

[Inhaltslos]

Administrator

Hi there! I'm Inhaltslos ("Halts"), one of the newer moderators here. I'm from the United States, but just recently moved back to the USA after many years living in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Though the locations I have referred to as 'home' have changed during my 40+ years, my belief in reincarnation has not. Since I was very little, I have remembered a past life in Germany during those tumultuous years before 1945. My childhood memories as a WWI soldier were so strong that I was convinced until I was middle school-aged that they had happened in this life! At that point I realized that no one else around me remembered the same things that I did, so I looked at reincarnation as a very real possibility. I started researching and validating my memories, had a regression, and eventually took a few trips to Germany to continue putting the pieces together. It has been a long, emotional experience...yet I'd never change a thing because it has shaped me into who I am today.
Now here I am 30 years later, still living with reincarnation, but grounded and comfortable in my research and experience. If you're visiting the forum feeling a bit lost and overwhelmed, or feel isolated due to your experience, then I can 100% recommend joining up here and getting involved in the conversations. Even if you only feel like lurking (I myself started lurking here years before I formally joined), I think there is comfort in knowing that you are not alone in your experience.
Outside of reincarnation, I am a mother to a 17-year-old boy, one street-savvy rescue dog, and one ridiculously fluffy cat. I love antiquing, alternative 80s music, art, and travel.
Don't hesitate with a PM if you have any questions or just want to say hi.

 

[fireflydancing]

Moderator

Hi there!
I am Fireflydancing. I carry my light as a firefly but not attached to any system. I come and go and dance around.
In daily life, I am a teacher. I love language, communication, interacting with people and at the end of the day I return home where there is silence. When I am home there is no television, no radio and the telephone is always 'off'. No visitors.

I love gardening. I feel very connected to Nature. My horoscope is full of Earth signs, some Water signs, one Fire sign and no Air at all. This means I am very grounded and practical. I know a lot of people won't suspect me to have my spiritual side. I am not a preacher and I don't like to discuss my reality with other people in daily life (unless we already know each other in this field).

I am interested in reincarnation, but it is not an obsession to prove or validate memories. My main interest is the therapeutical side (speaking about myself).

In life, I've experienced not pleasant things but in general, I think I've lived a highly magical life. Not big accomplishments but meeting people from past lives, synchronicities, and my abilities to communicate with...I don't know how to call it: other dimensions?

At the beginning of 2016, I had a Kundalini experience. I was unprepared on a conscious level but energetically I was ready to step into a new phase in my life. Once it has happened, you cannot undo the change.

My purpose in Life is not easy to detect. So I still don't know why I walk around on this Earth.
My main strength is: I am a creative thinker, I don't limit myself to logic or bounderies. I can motivate and help people to do the same.
My main weakness is I often don't give myself the time for diplomacy (waste of time) and that makes my reactions too honest and painfully direct for sensitive individuals. I'll do my very best not to let interfere this weakness in my job as a moderator.
Wish me Good Luck!

 

[Totoro]

I just wanted to say hello!

I started my journey back in 2006, when I caught the end of a movie on TV and the roller coaster ride thereafter, brought me to this forum. I was a member and then a moderator for quite a while afterwards until some personal issues took precedence until one day and quite suddenly, the weight was lifted and I found myself back in full form and feeling better than ever!

I've been lucky to have a documented past life. Most of my life then, was quite traumatic and I feel fortunate to be able to see how my past life has affected mine now; however, I would not be where I am today without this forum or the people on it, both present and past. I believe quite strongly that past life research can be therapeutic, but ultimately, it's the people in our lives that make the biggest difference.

Without being here to share, to be listened to, encouraged and accepted, I wouldn't be who or where I am today. I'm very happy to have returned here and to be able to provide the same opportunity to others and simply to be a member of the community.

Aside from that, I love music, photography, mystery stories, I have 3 cats and I live in Florida.

Absolutely feel free to say hi or PM at anytime if you need anything.

 

[Speedwell]

A bit about myself. I grew up and live in England. A mix of science and dreamer. When I was in my early years at school, I was an avid reader, especially of anything about science. But I also spent a lot of time daydreaming and staring into space, or outside in nature, engrossed in watching the river flow by or the leaves on the trees blowing back and forth in the wind.

During my time at school, as I learned more, I became absorbed into a materialist way of looking at things, that the physical world is all there is. But on leaving school and setting out in the world, I found that was not enough. Too many pieces of my experience didn't fit. The first cracks appeared when I started to recognise telepathy, sometimes in dreams, but also when awake. Later I encountered bigger unexplainable - in materialist terms - problems, and came to realise that reincarnation was the best fit, at least as a working hypothesis, something to consider for a while, see whether it made sense. Well, forty or more years later, yes, I still find reincarnation makes the most sense to me.

What else? Well I used to work as a programmer, working on big mainframes which now seem antiquated, but were at the heart of business and technology for a long time.

Folk music is one of my main interests these days, which has a social side too, many of my friends both now and over the years have played guitar or other instrument or sang, these are great ways to be with other people to relax. It also allows people to disengage from other roles in life, whether wealthy and prosperous or struggling in poverty, music can bring people together.

Also I've had a long-term interest in photography. There was always a certain magic in seeing an image appear on the paper as it was rocked back and forth in the developing solution. Today, photography is something that everyone can do. The starting point though, is to see. To look at things, to find something of interest and of beauty in what is around us. That involves an inner journey too, seeing with the inner self, not merely the eyes.

As for this forum, I've enjoyed reading the contributions from other members when they feel able to share their experiences. I hope the forum long continues, and remains a place where people can feel comfortable participating.

 

[Ocean]

Hi!

I'm Ocean. I live in Central Europe and when I’m not on the forum I work in public healthcare. I was always interested in both, spiritual topics and science. These two never contradicted each other in my mind, on the contrary, they complement each other when trying to understand the world we live in. My other interests are too many to list, from boating to video games to opera, and they are often changing.

I grew up Christian, but as a young teenager I started to get interested in spirituality and philosophy as I felt the Christian religion wasn’t satisfying and I was looking for a deeper meaning in life early on. Also, since childhood I have always had this idea or vague memory of a spiritual realm, a world of freedom, peace and harmony, that I used to call my “true home” and where I wished to return sooner or later. New Age literature was popular at that time and I consumed what I could get into my hands. When I first learned about reincarnation, I instantly accepted the idea to be true because it was the only thing that made sense to me. I was about 12 years old back then, and I haven’t changed my opinion on this since. From this day on, I also wished to remember my past lives. It was just due to curiosity and the entertaining thought that I maybe had some interesting past lives and maybe witnessed some interesting times in history. I tried to remember back then, but unfortunately never got anything.
My other biggest field of interest at that time was science. And so I chose to get a scientific education, which was never an objection to my spiritual beliefs.

Finally, I started to get past life memories as a young adult, mostly in dreams. Back in 2011, I suddenly began to have dreams about a past life during WW2. These were some very detailed and vivid dreams. Until today, I don’t know why these memories came up at that time. It seems they came out of the blue, not triggered by anything, but they came with a lot of emotional baggage. I was seriously thrown off track in my everyday life. This was the starting point of a year-long past life journey and an emotional rollercoaster.

I did a lot of research with the goal to verify my memories, trying to convince myself these weren’t just some weird dreams and that I wasn't just overreacting. Deep within I felt and knew intuitively they were real memories, but in my head I had doubts at the same time and many questions. I tried to remember more, trying out different methods from regression to psychics, only to realize that what yielded the best results for me and what I could rely on best, have been my spontaneous past life dreams all along and a sense of intuitively knowing/feeling past life things. I found some verifications to my memories, while I was also dealing with the emotional part of it. The latter made me join reincarnation communities after a while. I needed someone to talk to, people who were experiencing the same things. It was a huge relief to realize I wasn’t the only one and that I wasn’t “just going crazy”.

Over the years I had remembered a few other past lives from different time periods, both as male and female, mostly in Europe, sometimes just glimpses, sometimes a bit more. It was at this point I joined this forum and found it to be a great source of interesting accounts and reincarnation related topics.

Today, I haven’t really found out what the meaning of all this is, and although I believe in reincarnation, I’m leaving room for doubt when it comes to my own experiences. I’m still trying to figure it all out. Some of my memories made a great emotional impact on me, but I’m not much attached to my past lives. I think my current life wouldn’t be any different if I hadn’t remembered at all. I’ve always felt more connected to the spiritual world I remembered vaguely, yet deeply since childhood. So, maybe the only reason why I had remembered anything is the curiosity and desire I had as a teenager: I just wanted to remember past lives. But what I got was totally different from what I had imagined or expected! It was also a far more challenging experience than I had thought. But in any case, it’s an experience that is enriching to my life and I'm happy to have it.

I hope people reading this forum will find comfort and support when dealing with their own past live experiences, as well as kind and understanding people to talk to, just like I did when starting on my past life journey.