Today, I remembered...
it's time to stop the cover-up.
I was at a Unity Temple service listening to a singer named Jerome. He has a straight-from-God voice -- deep, melodious, perfect -- that always strongly affects me. I thought of what an undeniable gift he has for singing. Then I thought how everyone with me and Jerome in the sanctuary had glorious gifts as well. Which brought me to me. What are my gifts and what am I doing with them?
Uh-oh.
I'd say writing is one of my gifts. But, buried inside of me are many more that I catch fleeting glimpses of and then quickly clamp the lid on.
During the guided meditation portion of the service, Heidi had us give a physical form to the thought-thing that was most holding us back. I soon realized the thought-thing that holds me back is fear of rejection, of not being accepted and the thing looks like a black blob, like something you'd see on a cancerous lung.
Lovely image, isn't it?
So, here's what I take away from this experience/remembrance. We really must stop pretending to be less than we are, stop settling for mediocrity in ourselves and in our lives. For God's sake, isn't it time we started feeling and acting like the miraculous divine spirits that we are? If not now, when? We tell ourselves "I'm afraid". OK. So what? Do you like to be afraid? How do we not be afraid? Do something that scares the hell out of us. As Ralph Waldo Emerson said "do the thing you fear and the death of fear is certain".
We tell ourselves "I don't want to get hurt. My (mother, father, girlfriend - whatever) hurt me so deeply, I just can't get over it". Bullshit! Look at everything you've gotten past, every adversity you've overcome and honestly tell me you can't get over it.
Listen, please listen -- settling for a hum-drum existence in a protective cocoon is not how we're supposed to live.
Let's be afraid, make fools of ourselves (at times), and support this world of gifted, divine beings together.
Are you with me?