First thought…………….Cringe!!!

So long as we continue to associate blowing our own trumpet with being boastful or big headed, full of ourselves and showing off we will continue to hide, belittle, excuse and minimise who we are and what we are capable of in the world.

I belong to a support group which loosely follows the Work That Reconnect ideas of Joanna Macy. Once a month we gather to share our pain for the world so we can move through our fears, anger, overwhelm and numbness to a place of hope, where we feel more emboldened, engaged and able to play our part in the healing of the world.

This month we wondered about our descendants and what they will think about us, as individuals and collectively? What will they make of what we are doing or not doing to contribute to the healing of our world?

We ended up taking it in turns to sit and hear from the others what they see in us, what they felt we bring to the world, what talents, skills and attributes we have. Each person’s list was written down so we have it to keep.

For different reasons we all found our lists hard to own and we recognised that we spend a lot of time and energy thinking we should be other than who we are. We should know different things, have different skills, in other words we should be someone else.

Alchemy ensued, as we discussed each person’s list we began to recognised the individual gifts each of us bring to the world. We don’t need to be everything because we are a part of something. Each of us has unique skills, abilities, insights and strengths which together make for a full and rich whole.

As I gazed around the room I felt safer and more secure. It makes sense that you do what you are good at, and be who you are and I will do the same.

What a complete waste of time it is to hanker after being someone we are not.

My dear friend Annie reminded us all about this quote:

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of Love. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of Love that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”
Marianne Williamson

So instead of feeling like we stand in the shadows of others let’s step out and shine our own light, just imagine how illuminating that could be!