Columbia River
Creative writing has been helping to brighten up the gloomy days of 2020. Below is a short haiku about my view on life.
Haiku for the soul
Life is a river
We the vessels that transform
To trust in its flow.
I am most excited to share this piece below written by my talented and open-hearted classmate Kirsten Olsen.
You, Incredible You!
Do you know what the Universe wants most for your life? The Universe wants you to feel as incredible about yourself as it feels about you. And that's pretty incredible! You are incredible. There is no one else like you. You are a precious gift to this world!
We are all incredible. We are all unique. And probably, most of us don't show up in the world that way. We don't feel that way about ourselves. We don't treat ourselves that way.
But that is the challenge we've been given in this life--to treat ourselves with the love and devotion that our inherent divinity in form deserves.
I remember a phrase that someone (my psychiatrist, actually), used on me when I was a young teenager. He said, "Who the H do you think you are, God?" He was trying to point out that I didn't need to take responsibility for everyone around me. I used it, of course, to castigate myself and make myself feel guilty, like I did with everything back then.
But now, looking back, I wonder what would have happened if I'd said, "Yes, I do think I'm God! And so are you, and everyone else in this world!" If we just treated ourselves and each other with the same care and devotion we offer God, the world would blossom into Heaven on Earth before our very eyes!
That is the key to this life on earth. And most people don't even get a glimpse of it! We have been schooled to see problems wherever we look, to seek out the negative, fix it and move on to the next thing.
For me, and for many like me, it was easy to cheer for other people, see the good in them, listen to their worries and concerns, hold space for their feelings. It was in learning to do those things for myself that my life began to turn around.
It isn't easy to cheer for ourselves. Most of us were never taught how to do that, much less provided examples of how to do it. Many of us were taught just the opposite--to criticize ourselves and tear ourselves down.
So, here's a place to start. What if everything we do is 'right'. No matter what it may be, we are always doing whatever we're doing, just right. If you're sitting and reading this blog, you are doing that perfectly. If you're frustrated by what I'm writing, you're being frustrated perfectly. If you are distracted by other things, you are distracted perfectly.
Let that be a starting place for cheering yourself on. Give yourself the chance to speak out loud, or silently, to no one but yourself, exactly what you're doing perfectly in whatever moment you are in.
Congratulate yourself on the simplest things that you are doing right. Wow, you have really got that breathing down! Look at the fine way you are sitting!
I am so proud of how well you are living you life at this moment. You deserve to have all your dreams come true!
May you be blessed with the most incredible cheerleader on the planet! YOU!