“Your individuality is the most valuable thing you have.”
Martha Beck
“All that we are is the result of what we have thought.”
Buddha
Message
Life takes many twists and turns. It leads us up and down hills, eventually to the beach. Often we slog through a few swamps or deserts on our way to the beach.
As children and young adults we are taught:
- You were born to be poor. So accept it.
- This family has been farmers since 1607, so that is your destiny.
- College is for people who are too lazy to work for a living
Somehow, we know deep inside that we belong on the beach. We can be rich, city people or well-educated. We don’t know how we know, but we do. So we nurture those thoughts in secret until one day they burst into bloom. Then we know that we have to move forward or die inside. We were not meant to be the person that we were told we should be. It is time to move forward.
This applies to our personalities as well as our outside lives. We may have grown up in a dour family, but our natural inclination is a sunny personality. We, like Ebenezer Scrooge, can through off life’s hard lessons and become the person we really are. We can be the person who “is the result of what we have thought.” When we reach that point we realize we no longer have to “fit in” but that our “individuality is the most valuable thing” we have.
So what if you want to be an artist or an actor. We must follow our inside path, no matter what our age. Grandma Moses became a famous artist in her 80s. Others have blossomed late as well.
One example is Abraham Lincoln. He was born to be a poor farmer, yet he sought to learn whenever and wherever he could. I doubt he ever thought he’d be a United States President during our nation’s most serious crisis. But he knew he didn’t belong on the farm and he followed that path. His life story doesn’t indicate that he was happy, but he knew he was doing what he was put on Earth to do.
No matter our age or station in life, we can look inside and know who we are supposed to be. We can recognize those thoughts we’ve nurtured and begin to live by their wisdom. What others think no longer matters. We become what we think we are.
Meditation
Creator Spirit,
Thank you for planting a seed inside us that guides us to our real selves. Thank you for nurturing it while we face challenges and must keep the seed hidden. We are grateful when the day comes that we can let the seed grow and we finally become who we really are.
And so it is.
© by Sharon Dillon, December 12, 2014
Sharon D. Dillon, energywriter@cox.net and Laugh your way to peace, love and joy at http://energywriter.me
Chesapeake Bay Writers, Erma Bombeck Writers Workshop, Southern Humorists, National Society of Newspaper Columnists
Author of one of 14 stories in The Book of Mom: Reflections of Motherhood with Love, Hope and Faith, published by booksyoucantrust.com. Available in print and e-format at Amazon.com
Contents may be forwarded, but please give credit where credit is due and erase all email addresses on original message.
Laugh your way to peace, love and joy 
Dear Sharon,
This piece has a weak, confusing opening. If the “beach” is meant to be maturity or success, it needs to be set up as such.
Paragraph 2 is arguable unless “we” is understood to be some of us.
Paragraph 4 word choice: in third sentence “through” should be “throw”.
Sincerely,
Jack Lott
Thanks. Will look at it and try to fix it. I go over and over the texts for errors but always seem to miss some.
Well said, Sharon. We must all become self-validating people to find true peace and happiness.
As always, you make me slow down and think.
Making my friends think is my goal. Of course, I have to stop and consider my thoughts before I type them here.