The greatest gifts are never found under a tree in your living room.

No matter the source of your faith, no matter your circumstance, you are your own greatest gift.

You’re already everything you’ll ever need to be.

It’s a great day to be you!

“Appreciation can make a day, even change a life. Your willingness to put it into words is all that is necessary.” — Margaret Cousins

 

It’s amazing how powerful our words can be. Simply expressing our gratitude for the people in our lives and for what they contribute reminds them of their value, of their true worth as a person.

This is also true when we express our gratitude for who it is we already are. When we take a moment and remind ourselves of our value and worth, sometimes the life we change is our own.

It’s a great day to be you!

You have a great deal in common with the Empire State Building.

If you choose to see it.

 

New York City inspires me. I don’t get there very often, but whenever I do the city never lets me down. I’ve come to love the scale and grandeur. It’s a place of great energy, a city of hope, possibilities, and dreams. The art, the architecture, the food, the ethnic diversity…all are a part of what makes this city breathe. It’s an amazing place.

Unless you’re like my friends who actually live there. They no longer see what I see.

Perhaps it’s just like anything else. After a while everything just becomes part of the background. The once-vibrant hues that at one time excited us gradually fade to grey. Too often we are surrounded by miracles, yet over time we no longer see anything miraculous.

New York has a lot to notice. The real inspiration, though, comes from actually noticing.

Right now in your immediate space there is a great deal to notice. And a great deal to be inspired about. It doesn’t matter if you’re standing in Times Square or if you’re standing in your living room.

There are many great things about us that we’ve allowed to fade into our own personal backgrounds. Simply because we tend to take ourselves for granted. We no longer see the greatness that lies within us. We no longer see all that we already are and all that we are capable of becoming.

Vibrant hues never really fade to grey; we just stop noticing their color. The vibrant hues that define us are right in front of us, as vibrant as they’ve always been, clearly visible if we allow ourselves a few precious moments to actually see them.

Don’t we owe it to ourselves to simply stop for just a moment to acknowledge and appreciate our own magnificence and significance…to allow ourselves to again be inspired by who it is we already are?

Your life is far too important to simply allow it to fade to grey.

It’s a great day to be you!

 

Rudolph took what society would call a flaw and turned it into his trademark, a defining characteristic.

He’s not alone. The world is full of famous people who did the exact same thing. Look what Cindy Crawford did with her facial mole. Listen to Bob Dylan sing. I’m certain that they were both told their “flaws” would never allow them to fit in, never allow them to be valuable. There would be “no reindeer games” for either of them. But like Rudolph, their “flaws” became their defining characteristics.

But is life really about fitting in to a predetermined profile? As kids we had no concept of fitting in. We just followed our hearts. Nothing was “flawed” because nothing was judged. As we got older, we started buying into the concept of fitting in, empowering the hierarchy of cool. There is no room for individual uniqueness when the goal is fitting in.

We live in a time of judgment where external expectations greatly influence how we evaluate the world around us. Including even how we look at ourselves. We compare everything to the template of how things/people are supposed to be and then judge accordingly.

When you look at you, do you see flaws or defining characteristics?

Within all of us is a beautiful voice, an expression of who we really are. Usually that voice is silenced because we fear that our abilities, dreams, or ambitions are just not good enough. When we decide to silence that voice, we silence our very soul.

Our unique voice was given to us for the sole purpose of bringing it to life and sharing it with the world. Our voice, our glorious gift, is a celebration of who we are, and who we are is above any external expectations or opinions.

It’s a matter of choice, really. We can either empower our perceived flaws or embrace that which defines us.

When you look at it this way it’s really not that hard of a choice, is it?

It’s a great day to be you!

Welcome to East Berlin, 1989. November 10th was the day after the Wall came down. A day filled with justifiable euphoria. But along with the excitement came an emotion that was very much unfamiliar in East Berlin.

Uncertainty.

Life in East Berlin had a great deal of certainty. Oppressive political regimes always do a “great” job of clearly defining responsibilities and expectations for their citizens. But with the collapse of the Wall, the responsibilities and expectations in place for 28 years collapsed as well. The rules suddenly changed and no one knew what the new rules were.

Uncertainty.

Fast forward to now…the Free World, 2011. So where did all the rules go? You know, the rules of how life was supposed to work. The Continue reading “East Berlin, Madonna, and the New Age of Uncertainty” →