Sunrise Pages April

Hello, Hello, Dear Creator!

Each day I see this as a valuable time, where I take time to get still and listen – to what my mind is spinning and shouting, and I try to learn the root causes for it; to go deeper to where my heart is guiding me, to honor what I have and journey on to who I want to be; and to commune with my Spirit Guides and the Loving Energy of the Universe, in the Flow of Life that creates potential and change, seeding me with Inspiration, Hope, and Purpose.

Who was I before I did this?  I was stuck and struggling greatly.  I believed there was one right way to do each piece of it, each piece of living a life; and doing anything less than perfection made me worthless and unworthy – unworthy of respect, acceptance, success, and love.

Yesterday I mentioned how our struggles and greatest suffering is often found in between a “belief” we are told is absolutely true, and the Truth we feel in our heart.

This story of perfection is an example of this struggle.  When we believe that perfection is the only accepted, worthy way, then the second that we misstep, we are lost.  There is no redemption.  No eraser or white-out for the imperfections in our life.

Does this feel like freedom?  Does this story liberate your soul?

To me, it is the acknowledgement that we all have imperfections; that there is not one and only one perfect way to do the pieces of our life, but that how we show up for each part simply shifts the flow of the River to the next part.  And that is our unique, creative expression and action.

The truth that liberates my soul is this: it is not in perfection, but by showing up as our creative, expressive self, in a world of creative, expressive selves, and opening our heart to our own Truth and to each other.

This is the wisdom that rescued me from my fear of failure.  As I alluded, my “success” returning to college somehow reinforced my fear that failure would have made me unworthy.  Perhaps that stemmed from my inability to share my journey of return with my dad and other family members.

This understanding that liberates my soul is the journey that I embarked on long ago.  Or, more accurately, long ago I began seeking a way to liberate my soul.

I had a dear friend who tried to introduce my to a world that had space for imperfection, and honored the travelers on their journey.

It seemed like fairytale, though.  The notion that I could find and have peace in my mind and my heart; if I just set down this rulebook I grasped so tightly, the one that declared that there was one perfect way to live.

I recognize that time as the beginning of my journey – the step before my first step.

And, somewhere in the discontent of the life I was living, and the heartbreak of slowly losing my dad, and the internal struggle between my beliefs and my Heart’s Truth – the seeds that were planted so many years before began to grow.

There was a stark lesson I saw in my father’s life – where was Joy?  What if I tracked Joy, rather than perfection – which I had already forfeited through my imperfections?

There is redemption in the Journey of Joy.  Wake up and try again.  Each day.  So I do.

I discovered my desire to be a peaceful soul.  Imperfect, and redeeming.

 

And, a Prompt:

Make three columns on a blank sheet of paper.  In the first column, list twenty characteristics you must have to be successful.

In the second column, list twenty characteristics you need to be happy.

Do any items appear in both columns?  Yay – circle them.

For the items that don’t match, in the third column describe how you can be both characteristics at the same time.

Are there any that you cannot resolve?

 

Thanks to that Peaceful Soul who showed me The Way, and to My Spirit Guides, who led me there!