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Illuminate or Shine?

Likely you’ve been told (by me as well as by others) to shine your light! Be kind, generous, thoughtful, use your gifts: SHINE! Shine also your inner light ever so brightly by letting the love and joy in your heart be seen in everything you do. The world needs our light, yes?

Yes it does! In fact, it needs our individual lights so much so that this wisdom:

Better to illuminate than merely to shine. Thomas Aquinas

is even more needed than “Shine your light”.

What???

To illuminate is to invite others to shine. We will experience the absence of darkness only insofar as we all shine brightly. So…

Every chance you get, choose to illuminate! Encourage and invite, be present to and celebrate, step aside so that another’s light can shine. Be that which illuminates. Be the spark, the starter. You may not be perceived as a bright light as your neighbor shines brightly, but the world will be a much brighter place with everyone shining with you!

How willing are you encourage your neighbor to shine?
What does your ego need to release in order to choose illumination?
What’s possible if you do?

 

 

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Why Self-Care?

As the animal known as “human”, each of us is an intricate web of systems which, like machines, run better when well cared for. Our human “machine” has physical systems which we nourish with food, exercise and sleep, but it is also made up of mental, emotional and spiritual systems. When I ask, “Why Self-Care?”, I am referring to all of these!

Now, I am not going to talk about the “what” of self-care. There are MANY places to learn about how to tend our physical, mental, emotional and spiritual beings. And, given that each of us is totally unique, any guidance for how to care for ourselves needs to be personalized by us over and over again as we grow and change.

I am, however, going to talk about the WHY of self-care.

Continue reading “Why Self-Care?”

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It’s all about relationship!

I heard this many times over the years from my husband as director of a non-profit:

It’s all about relationship!

And his aim was always to put listening, trust building, connecting — relationship — first. Relationship — before discussing treatment plans, performance issues, stuff that needed to be done.

Last week at the Fox Valley Literacy Council celebration of achievement gala, I heard it again. Continue reading “It’s all about relationship!”

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Where are you a people-pleaser?

I’ve done more harm by the falseness of trying to please than by the honesty of trying to hurt. ~ Jessamyn West, writer

This quotation hit me today as I was about to journal. It seems to speak to the codependency so many suffer from. This “trying to please” isn’t about doing something kind; rather, it is about changing “me” so as not to displease “you”. Jessamyn suggests that this form of hurting others is far more pervasive than intending to cause harm “honestly”. For example: Continue reading “Where are you a people-pleaser?”