Friday, November 22, 2013

The Gift of You

You have a Gift. You ARE a Gift to the world and if you haven’t already shared this Gift, what are you waiting for? The world needs the one and only Gift that is unique to you. Your Gift is restless and calling from the inner depths to be let out.

What most don’t realize or acknowledge is this: the Universe WANTS you to accept your Gift, wants you to succeed, and to be happy! And when you finally choose to start moving in the direction of the Gift, the Universe/God/Love will rise up in seeming miraculous ways to meet you and help you give birth to it! It may not happen overnight, but when you keep moving toward it, it WILL move toward you.

The Gift is the thing you want more than anything, but are afraid to go after. Once you have acknowledged that it’s there, the Gift won’t leave you alone. Try as you will, your calling will not let you forget it. You may choose the misery of dodging the Gift for years, decades maybe, but it will always catch up with you. It will tap you on the shoulder and say, “Hi, remember me?” through the voice of a friend, a book, or an article that ignites a spark of recognition in your heart of hearts.

The Gift shows up as the tightness in your belly or your head when you are ignoring its cries for attention, doing work you are ultimately not designed for. The Gift is the gentle voice that relentlessly repeats itself in your head saying, “You can do this!” this dream that keeps inviting you. That kinder voice is trying to be heard over the clamor of old tapes declaring your inability, inadequacy, unworthiness, or the impossibility of your dream.

Right now, the Gift that is gestating inside of you may feel as strong as the prelude to an earthquake or as soft as the rolling and pawing of a kitten in a paper bag. But one day, when you can stand it no longer, the earth will tremble beneath you. The kitten will claw and tear its way out of the bag like a roaring lion…if you let it!   
Fear is a crafty entity and the biggest obstacle to using your Gift. Your mind will do cartwheels to reinforce the fear, even build upon it. It will come up with the most logical, sensible reasons why you should keep your Gift at bay. “I’m no good at that.” “What will others think?” “There’s no money (or not enough) in it!” “What if it doesn’t work?” “Better stay safe!” But is it truly “safe” to reinforce fear and amplify the angst of wondering what could have been? 

Choices made by fear may appear to be the easy way because they are familiar. It’s the way you’ve always done it. Choices made by LOVE are not always easy. They can seem difficult and require more work because they are not the mainstream way of doing things. You will probably stumble and make mistakes. I’ve often made choices that  many would consider foolish. Yet I ignored the well-meaning naysayers in favor of the passion in my gut that was beckoning me to the dance. At times it felt like jumping off a cliff, yet always something or someone was there to catch me, to spur me on, and to dance with me in the glorious field of realized dreams!

Perhaps this was an additional meaning behind the journeys of heroes like Gandhi and Martin Luther King who identified their Gifts and allowed their Gifts to lead them. They showed us that it is far worse to sit in the mire than to stand up for what is aching to be made right. These men led whole countries of people to a better way. Isn’t it just as important to lead yourself to revealing the Gifts that only you can impart on the world?


Your Gift is made of LOVE. The Gift is right there inside you. The Gift is YOU…on fire. 

Thursday, November 14, 2013

A Revolution of LOVE!

Numerous times in my life, my personal mantra has been, “If only I could give you--X--on a silver platter.” Joy, beauty, hope, faith…whatever you choose is there for you when you allow it to be. I can’t give those things to you, but I can show you that they are possible and crucial in this ever-chaotic and confusing world.

At a time in history where there is so much to be concerned about, a time when we have no great heroes in our midst like Gandhi and Martin Luther King, no one to speak up for us, I believe we are the ones who must step up and speak out. There are too many “issues” to choose from, so many things that need work you say? Indeed. Yet as one person there are many things you can do to keep the human spirit strong, both yours and that of others, by choosing joy when circumstances would ask you to do otherwise. Not frivolous “joy” as in giddy, slap-happy, nutso, but rather a deep, underlying trust in the strength and power of LOVE.

For if each of us falls into despair, if we give in to fear and hopelessness, if we give up, THEN they’ve got us! When we feel hopeless our strength is diminished, our power all but gone. Yet when we feel joy and love and possibility for the future, our power returns with intensity and we have a potency that can carry us through. This is why I fill my days with lovely music, uplifting books, nature – good god where would any of us be without trees, mountains, and creatures! There is no television or radio hawking constant bad news at me, nor advertisements for all the things they would have me believe I need.

The tactic of fear-creating and trying to push people down has been used for eons by controlling entities. Giving Native Americans blankets infused with small pox and surprise attacks dwindled their populations. Later, giving them alcohol (that their systems were not used to), unhealthy foodstuffs, and imprisoning them on reservations was a way to break them down. Yet strong Native leaders still do their best to keep spirits proud and high via ritual, prayer, and tradition.

Today I give you a smile, even when there are many things that I could let upset the day. I give you cups of tea and a listening ear, even when there may have been other things I planned to do. I will prepare wholesome, nourishing fare and invite you to savor the love it is infused with, even though we both know our food is tainted by the hand of corruption. There is a bouquet of flowers here and my greatest wish is for you to catch their sweet fragrance, even though there are things in the air that are not so sweet. The bright sun is warming your shoulders and my hope is that you feel it; that you see squirrels  performing their playful acrobatics in the trees and birds singing out a delight that echoes through the valley and feel a sense of warmth and peace…even though. 

Will you join me in this new revolution? It is time for LOVE to reign! It is time for joy and faith to flourish! It is time to turn our sights on beauty and see how it changes things. Trust me…it will.