perspective Archives - Page 17 of 23 -

Hello Inspiration – A Little Bird Told Me

July 10, 2011 by Farewell Stranger ·

First, thank you to everyone for the shower of love and support on yesterday’s post. I can’t tell you how much it means to me that I can write that honestly and not scare people away.

Later on Friday, after that much-needed reassurance from my boys, I spent some time browsing Pinterest. I can always count on some time spent there to help my perspective and my “Things That Inspire” board is getting full. There are a lot of things that offer similar sentiments, but when I got to this one I actually paused, momentarily breathless.

It was perfect, and perfectly timed. I totally believe these kinds of things come to us when we need them, and for now I’m just trusting with all my heart that this is true.

Filed Under: Hello, Inspiration · Tagged With: gratitude, hope, perspective

Everybody’s Got a Story

July 5, 2011 by Farewell Stranger ·

Driving down the road, I see her. A block or so ahead, she’s standing at a bus stop and I notice her immediately because her face is white. Not white as in Caucasian, just white. Really white.

“What is up with her face?!”

The thought crosses my mind before I’m able to catch it, but it’s immediately pushed down by a newer, more understanding voice. The one that reminds me that I have no idea what might be happening for someone else. That she might be sick. That she might be expressing an inner struggle through her outer appearance. That she might just do her makeup that way.

Or maybe it was the way the light reflected off of her. I’ll never know, because I actually didn’t see her face up close as I drove by. I was watching traffic. I was participating in the dialogue in my head and acknowledging its rightness.

Or maybe I wasn’t meant to actually see her and identify the cause. Because it doesn’t matter, does it? We are who we are and, for the most part, it’s not for others to judge.

That ain’t the picture, it’s just a part, sang Amanda Marshall. Everybody’s got a story that could break your heart.

I understand that better now and I know it’s true.

I’ve got my own stories and I’ve been privy to so many others.

For a long time I resented what my experience with depression took from me, but now I appreciate the gifts it’s giving back. Compassion. Understanding. Tolerance. Love. And the honour and endless gratitude that comes with being entrusted with another’s story. Even if – perhaps especially if – it breaks my heart.

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Filed Under: Better world · Tagged With: community, depression, perspective, spreading the love, we're not alone

Hello Inspiration – Name The Fear

July 3, 2011 by Farewell Stranger ·

A very good friend of mine – one of my besties, for whom I cannot express enough love and gratitude – has started a blog. He’s just a few posts in, but it’s inspiring. I’m inspired. And I wanted to share it with you.

His blog is called I Am Not Afraid. Here’s an excerpt from his about page:

“I’m tired of being less than I was created to be. I’m no longer prepared to trade dreams for mediocrity. And I’m motivated more than ever to live from a place of abundance rather than scarcity and from a posture of trust rather than fear.

I AM NOT AFRAID is both a declaration of strength but also an admission of knowing what it is to be afraid and perhaps true freedom can only be understood having known limitations.”

He has a vision for this blog but in true authentic-leader style, he’s starting by sharing his own thoughts and, yes, fears.

Read his first post – it’s powerful, and it will give you a sense of where he’s coming from.

What do you think? And what’s holding you back from being less than what you’re meant to be?

Filed Under: Hello, Inspiration · Tagged With: admissions, living life, perspective

Reclaiming Me

June 27, 2011 by Farewell Stranger ·

In addition to leaving hope notes for strangers, I’m over at C. Mom’s site today sharing my story as part of her Reclaiming Me series.

Big or small, every one of us has gone through something that led us to change our outlook or our circumstances or our sense of who we are. My story is about all three, though I feel once I did the first two I was able to do – and embrace – the third.

There are lots of other great stories in the series, so please c’mon over and read what I’ve shared and then browse around. A dose of inspiration!

Filed Under: Guest posts · Tagged With: depression, perspective, we're not alone

Hello, Inspiration – Living the Life You’re Meant to, Part 2

June 26, 2011 by Farewell Stranger ·

I read Eat, Pray, Love when I was pregnant with Connor and wasn’t a huge fan. I liked the book well enough – interesting story – but I thought Liz Gilbert was a narcissistic drama queen who just needed to get it together already.

That descent into judgmental karma-land certainly came back to bite me, didn’t it?

I didn’t get it then. I didn’t understand what depression was like, what it does to people. I didn’t cut her any slack for feeling as though she was screaming on the inside and no one could hear. I didn’t get it when she admitted to feeling like she was living the wrong life.

A while back my husband casually mentioned that the movie was available through our on-demand service but, since I didn’t particularly like the book – and really didn’t want to see Julia Roberts playing Julia Roberts, er, Liz Gilbert – I didn’t watch it. Then Connor got sick and I spent a lot of time on the couch. When I got sick of Big Bang Theory re-runs, I decided to give the movie a shot.

The movie as a whole was better than I expected, but it wasn’t until the end – the very, very end when Gilbert describes her philosophy about truth seeking – that I got it.

“If you are brave enough to leave behind everything familiar and comforting (which can be anything from your house to your bitter old resentments) and set out on a truth-seeking journey (either externally or internally), and if you are truly willing to regard everything that happens to you on that journey as a clue, and if you accept everyone you meet along the way as a teacher, and if you are prepared – most of all – to face (and forgive) some very difficult realities about yourself….then truth will not be withheld from you. Or so I’ve come to believe.”

I had read these words when I read the book, but in that moment I heard them for the first time.

My philosophy – though never this eloquently stated – is the same. I’ve never been good at trusting my instincts for the small stuff. But the big stuff, no sweat.

Truly willing to regard everything that happens to you on that journey as a clue? Absolutely. Except I call them signs. And they’ve been coming at me for a while, some of which I wrote about in an earlier inspiration post.

I haven’t watch Oprah for years, but I did watch her final show and there it was again.

“We all are called. Everybody has a calling. And your real job in life is to figure out what that is and get about the business of doing it.”

I have a career that I love and that I feel is important. But I’ve realized it’s not the same thing as my calling.

“That is what a calling is: it lights you up and it lets you know that you are exactly where you’re supposed to be doing exactly what you’re supposed to be doing.”

That’s what sharing my story has done for me. And what hearing others’ stories has done. Something that I refused to acknowledge for a long time has become what lights me up.

“Every day in every way you are showing people exactly who you are. You’re letting your life speak for you.”

That’s what this blog has become for me. From the first day, I’ve written what I’m feeling, no matter how raw or honest or scary. This is who I am.

“Wherever you are, that is your platform. And that is where your power lies… Connect, embrace, liberate, love somebody. Just one person. And then spread that to two and as many as you can. You’ll see the difference it makes.”

This is my platform. For now. And maybe it will stay that way. But it’s already done what I didn’t know it could do. Liberate someone. What a powerful way to express what helping to free someone from their own struggle can feel like.

Oprah talked about your life speaking to you as a whisper that, if you don’t listen, will start to throw bricks. And if you don’t listen, she said, the whole brick wall will fall down.

Well, my brick wall fell down. So I’m listening. Every day I’m piecing together more and more about what I want to do with this opportunity. I don’t know where it will take me. I don’t know if it will be something I do an hour a day after work or if it will be more than that.

“You have the power to change somebody’s life,” Oprah said.

I’ve already seen the difference it makes, so I intend to keep shining my light.