I am fairly certain we all need to go where we can shine.
When I was a little girl, I had lofty aspirations that I would do something spectacular with my life. I would find my purpose and achieve brilliance. When I was a starry-eyed little girl….
As it has turned out, I haven’t really managed anything on the “remarkable” scale. I never won seven gold medals in swimming at the Olympics, or was the starting shortstop for the Cincinnati Reds. I never made it to Broadway (well… I’ve been there to see several shows… but not to sing and dance in one). And I didn’t discover that beaker-full-of-something-sensational in the chemistry lab… like Madam Curie. I never became Batman, Aquaman, or even Speed Racer (well… maybe a little Speed Racer). But no Super-Hero status.
It seems though…. even in my adult life, I have continued to wish that I would find that niche. Whatever the “phenomenal” thing might be. Now, as the years pass by, I kind of think that may not happen. Nope. Not even. (This is a bit hard for me to talk about really…. and I am not quite sure why I am doing it now. But I started this bundle of yammering, and now I will finish it….)
I have friends… great friends in life….. who “shine” like crazy. I have a friend who is serving in Afghanistan right now. She has the best attitude about everything. Amazing. I have other friends who do great volunteer work…. at soup kitchens, food banks, clothing drives, toy drives, ministry work, community service, and on and on. I have some friends that are SO outside of themselves… it makes me wonder how they do it. You people are my heroes. My every day heroes. I love you for those remarkable things you do.
And maybe that is the point I need to learn from all of this. We have to go where we can shine. In our every-day-ness of life. We have to be every day heroes in whatever way is ours.
I’ve heard this message more than once this week….. it has popped up all over the place. Am I adding to the “virtue and decency”? Am I doing the next right thing? I am putting in more than I am taking away? Am I doing more good than harm. It reminds me of the quote by in Heaven Can Wait (1978 remake): “Are we hurtin’ anybody?”
You know…. if I am hurting anyone… I should stop it. Right now. If I have made a mistake, I should make amends, and do better next time. That’s what I am thinking. That is Polly’s advice to Polly tonight. To be the best version of me… that I can be.
Even if by a very small measure… am I making more positive energy than negative energy? And if we all did this… Oh what a world we’d live in…..
Yep. Go where we can shine.
“To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
“The only real failure in life is not to be true to the best one knows.” – Buddha
Published by