I didn’t have the language for it then, but I was 17 years old when I began to identify that supporting the well-being of all life was my primary value, purpose, drive, and commitment in life.
It was something about the summer between junior and senior year of high school - like an awakening to both purpose and power.
One warm morning that summer, around 11am, a few of us lifeguards were carrying buckets of liquid chlorine up from the pump room to dump into the pool. (No, this isn’t the dumbest thing we did with chemicals at the pool. 🤦♂️)
We’d pour the yellow liquid into the pool, and as it splashed in, some of it got onto our arms - it made them burn a little and itch!
I was working on one side of the pool, and I noticed my friends across the pool staring into a bucket. So I walked to them to check out what they were looking at.
There was a bee trying desperately to get out of the chlorine in one of the buckets. It was struggling - legs moving and wings fluttering. Its very survival was at stake, and it knew it.
My heart went out to the little guy...
And my friends found the bee's struggle entertaining.
Though I was awakening to this innate care and commitment for the well-being of all life, I didn't know how to best access it. In fact, for much of the time in my life between 17 and 24 years old, I struggled. I had challenging feelings and thoughts and I grappled and fought what felt like a losing a battle I didn’t even understand.
Each of us is a hero in our own lives and in the lives of others. We each have a direct line to the Divine Source of it all. What varies among and within us is how well trained we are in connecting to our Source and living from that Source.
We build up a lot of unhelpful habits and perspectives along the way. We've been molded - by our environments, by the people in our lives, and by our own choices.
And there comes a point in our lives, whether we recognize it or not, that we are actually the ones responsible for molding ourselves into the heroes we want to be - the heroes we're meant to be.
It’s no longer up to anyone but ourselves.
As Catholic priest Anthony de Mello has said: "The nature of rain is the same, but it makes thorns grow in the marshes and flowers in the gardens."
Are you using the rain of your life to grow your life intentionally, in all ways and at all times?
You are always molding yourself and the people in your life either towards or away from our own heroism.
Here's something people get out of working with me: self-love, reconnecting to their Source, and access to their inner hero as an experience and a place to live from.
Reach out and connect with me if you want that too.
Much Love. ❤️
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