"You're like a gardener", he said, "who has a beautiful cottage garden. Each day you tend to your garden. You grow all different kinds of flowers. And, each day, people pass by and say, 'What beautiful azaleas!'.
"'Ah but,' you reply, 'have you seen my roses? Aren't they beautiful?'
"Or they comment on your honeysuckle. And you say, 'Ah, but have you seen my roses, aren't they beautiful?'
"You invest your talents in flowers that you don't really love. But you adore your rose garden, so why don't you specialise in roses?"
We live a world that can be both frantic and volatile: a world where we try to please too many people, but forget to nourish ourselves. And when we are running on empty, what do we have left to give?
Sometimes, rather than spreading ourselves too thinly, it's worthwhile identifying our true passion and focusing on that - whether as a career or a hobby. As we make time for our true passion, we begin to feel lighter and freer, more loving and more tolerant.
We can never be every thing to everyone. We can, however, be utterly ourselves. We can be passionately, vibrantly, zestfully ourselves. Nurturing ourselves is single most generous act we can perform because it feeds us emotionally, mentally and spiritually. And when we are full, we have so much more to offer.
No comments:
Post a Comment