Cultivate a relationship with yourself...make it your goal to learn all that you can about who you are, to understand your feelings and your thoughts, to identify the real person, the true self that is you. And while you do this, a process that never ends, embrace the self that you discovered and dedicate your life to enabling that person to become all that he or she can be. Listen closely to the songs and poems that arise within you, both the happy ones and the sad ones, and trust their quiet messages. Trust your dreams, your aspirations, and your imagination, for these are of yourself, and that alone makes them worthy of your unwavering trust.
For some individuals this admonition may sound very narcissistic, and of questionable merit because it runs counter to the belief that we need to place more emphasis on service to others and to our communities. What they fail to understand is that by taking the time to understand ourselves we are better prepared to reach out and serve others. To borrow from the words of Elizabeth O'Connor, we journey inward in order to journey outward.
2 comments:
Hi Bill, that is so true.
I love this piece...it's so full of energy and life.
This is lovely, and so inspiring.
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