You Were MADE For This

The holidays are an exciting time for most of us.  With the sparkling glow of lights on the tree and neatly wrapped packages full of surprises, we anticipate Christmas with a child’s hope and look forward to unwrapping a shiny new year.  It is also a time when we may begin to reflect on things that haven’t gone exactly perfect during the year; laundry-listing our weight gain, illnesses, car accidents, missed opportunities and failed goals.  Our hearts ache as we count the empty chairs and miss dearly those we have lost – those that will not be here to celebrate the season with us this year.  While the world is filled with overflowing joy, our attention sometimes turns to the sharp darkness in the corners of our lives, and in our world.  It is critical during these doubting periods that we turn our eyes to the sun, remember who we are and push HARDER to make a difference in the world.

I have been going through a rough patch lately in my life with challenges to my health, in my family and in walking alongside others who are struggling with deep issues, both personal and in their businesses.  It is easy to get discouraged and simply want to give up.  Instead, I work hard to remind myself that it is during these struggles that who we are in the world is deeply tested and loudly demonstrated: will we push for possibility or set a chair for despair at our dinner tables?  It is our strength and hope in the difficult moments that begins to change our lives, and the world around us.  

“One of the most calming and powerful actions you can do to intervene in a stormy world is to stand up and show your soul. Soul on deck shines like gold in dark times. The light of the soul throws sparks, can send up flares, builds signal fires, causes proper matters to catch fire. To display the lantern of soul in shadowy times like these – to be fierce and to show mercy toward others; both are acts of immense bravery and greatest necessity.” ~ Clarissa Pinkola Estes, We Were Made for These Times

Your passion is your lantern.  Your vision, your why… they are your shield.  Your mission is your sword and it is each of our jobs to take up the “good fight” and cause change in our corners of the world; to bring light to the darkness.  You were MADE for this.  A hurdle is simply a hurdle and a mountain was set there to climb.

When we can face our challenges and push despair and failure aside, we demonstrate hope for others.  We show the world who we are in the matter of our lives.  We clear a path for those that will follow.  We create real possibility in all that is around us.  We begin to lead.