Embrace it all-without fear

Embrace it ALL

-without fear….

MONEY: Here is how I feel about it.  If you were given some kind of talent that allows you to make money. Then it’s expected that you use that talent well! Not half way, but WELL.  If you can make money and others can’t.  Teach them, help them, fund them.  But for goodness sake, don’t squander your opportunity.

Same thing if you can sing, then SING!

If you can create art, PAINT!

If you are good at carpentry, BUILD.

If you are good at sales, FIND WHAT OTHER PEOPLE WANT and HELP THEM GET IT.

See what I mean?  Do not squander what you can do, because it’s your gift.

(Parable of the Talents in the bible-check it out. Mathew 25:14-30)

PLAY: Laughing is a good thing!  I don’t think some of us do it enough. Let’s get out and play, and love, and fill other people up with our positive spirit somewhere! Find Joy.  Find other people…for reals…skip online.  Flesh and blood, eye to eye, heart to heart, open and joyful.  Let’s dare each other to get out there.  They need us. We need them. What could possibly happen if we were all willing to put the phone down, and go find some joy!

LOVE: And…when we love, we must love, as they are. We must find the most beautiful traits other people bring, and their unique spirit, and become engaged in that. We must help when they fall down, we must reach up when we do. We must embrace those human traits that makes things messy. Ugh…the hard part. Not like a movie or a perfectly structured book. It’s like real life.  Frustrating, annoying, funny, boring, curious, talks too much, doesn’t talk enough, interesting, real life kind of beautiful.  Forget perfection. If we learn to find beauty in all the imperfection…then we will be better at it…I think.

FAILURE: So it happens. We learn. We continue. Everyone does it. It’s all good. Keep going.

PAIN: Heart pain. physical pain, disappointment, discouragement, anger, fear, rejection, loneliness.  We all get it in heaping doses of all of it, if we live long enough. Best to just understand it will come, no surprises, skip denial. Just look up when it does. Pray for wisdom, strength, turn it over to God, and follow his lead. Embracing life, and doing it with faith…is the full experience.  How we handle it…well, that’s the test… mostly of our resilience, character, and tried and true faith.  Oh, and if we don’t handle it very well, we will most probably get many more chances try again.

EGO: Ahhh… the ego.  The deceiving little creature that lives.  Convincing us we are better than everyone, or suggesting we are less. But that little monster is a monster. Mostly shows up when we are thinking too much about ourselves.  Best way to control it: Get focused on other people. Stop thinking of yourself, and get thinking about others.

Oh and stop taking selfies everyday…seriously…stop that.

ACCEPTANCE: I heard a statement from a priest one day, “We should never ask, what will happen to us if we love them, we should only ask, when will happen to them, if we do not”. That priest died the following week.

His words are memorialize in my journal, and in my mind. I feel like he spoke those words for me personally, straight to my heart, before he died. I think we can use these wise words in LOTS of situations with people…and then we decide what we need to do, from there.

PASSION: Be passionate about what you do.  If you are, everything else will fall into place. Trying to be “cool” instead of passionate, …yeah…it’s not as cool.  I say, be an example to the world. Stand up in front of the room and don’t be afraid to be on fire! It’s the only way to ignite another spark.

LIVE: Be example to the world of how it CAN be done, with Joy, with Love, with Character, with Passion, and with Integrity…and, I hope, you will do it with a little class…cause that’s kinda a thing for me.

No matter what…I hope you embrace the entire journey, and shine on, my dear friends…….

-Beverly