Personal Empowerment
We live in a magical land…a land of great and wonderful things. A land where some are given greatness, and some are deprived of even the bare means of sustenance. It is a land of wizards and sorceresses…of magical doorways that lead to fortune or failure. It is a land of endless possibilities and fantasies.
You are born into this land always with options. You are born with a whole variety of possibilities from which to choose. And you are taught by the community to find your place. You are even sent to school to learn about life and, most importantly, to learn to spell.
These spelling lessons begin very early. The family begins first teaching you how to spell family, love, gender, relationship, connection. As you get older and your world expands you learn to spell friendship and you learn new spellings of family, love, gender, relationship, connection. You add to this the spelling of the world, that which is outside of you, and you learn yet more spellings of love, gender, relationship, connection.
And then you are sent to school. Here you learn yet other, more complex spellings of what you have already learned and much, much more. You learn that each person has a whole set of spellings that are just their own. They are unique to your family’s position in the community, your religion, your economic position, your height, your intelligence, your external beauty, your athletic ability, your attractiveness to others, your willingness to learn the accepted spellings of the community and even more.
Schooling has many levels, and each level has more unique spellings that go with it. It almost seems that the more spellings you have the higher your status. But be careful, that is not necessarily true.
At some point your formal education ends. Now you get to learn from being out in life with others, perhaps in some job. Now your job is to find the spellings that fit the situation. For some, finding the spellings that work is relatively easy, for others, not so.
The problem is that, in any given situation the same spelling does not necessarily work for any two people. There seems to be something quirky and open-ended about how it all works. We become aware, although we already had some sense of this, that there are wizards and sorceresses who control some of this. Some of us even try for such positions. Some succeed.
We begin, if we have not already done so, to develop our own unique spellings to keep our sanity. We tell ourselves that we understand the way the world works and, as a result, know how we must spell ourselves to survive. It works…well kind of. We discover a survival mode that keeps us alive, not necessarily happy and nourished but alive, with some moments of pleasure (that we survived if nothing else). This seems to be the best we can do, and upon this, we can perhaps build much of what the world calls success. Some can and some cannot.
It is not what it seems.
Something, some quiet voice at first, seems to be whispering to us that we have all our spellings wrong somehow. As we get older, as the success or lack of success builds, this voice gets louder. Our body joins in. It sends us discomfort, aches and pains, illness and disease. It slows us down. It taps us on the shoulder. It hits us on the side of the head. It stops us in our tracks.
We can find no new, outside spelling to ease it. We try owning more, working harder, drinking more, more money, more sex, more drugs, more books, more travel, more of anything, but to no avail. We often begin to think that this is just what life is like for everyone when they get older and over-the-hill. We try to resign ourselves to it, but that voice does not stop.
Finally, out of desperation, we simply submit. We listen to the voice. It speaks clearly, but the message is crazy. It tells us that there is a world within us, without all that outside spelling. It tells us that we should not be judged by our spelling ability, nor should we judge others by their spelling. It seems to be saying that if we give up trying to learn everyone else’s spellings, we can be whole, and healthy, and successful, and happy, and joyful, and loving, and connected.
This seems totally crazy. Perhaps we are going crazy. We work harder at the old spellings; we try new ones…the new ones everyone is swearing by. But nothing really works for any length of time, and we are brought back, exhausted, to the voice again. It is still patiently saying the same thing.
Finally, we are ready to say, “So, OK, how am I supposed to do this.” And that inner voice tells us something ridiculous like, “Just stop and trust yourself.” We know we cannot do that, so we go on with our lives the old way, tired and depressed.
But then something happens. Life slows down. Things stop working. The world seems to be working against us. Sometimes we are stopped by a blow from life.
Here we are again, back to the voice, exhausted, defeated, humiliated, in pain. It does not say, “I told you so.” It holds us and tells us it will help us. We are now too tired to even think of those outside spellings. It shows us how to eat ignoring those outside spellings. It shows us how to breathe ignoring those outside spellings. It shows us how to be with ourselves ignoring those outside spellings. It shows us how to be with the world ignoring those outside spellings. It shows us how to be with others ignoring those outside spellings. It shows us how to work ignoring those outside spellings.
It is strange. It feels somehow familiar, but hardly ordinary. Our strength returns, but different than before. Our energy returns, but different than before. Our health returns, but different than before. We rediscover joy.
Regaining health, some of us pick up some of those old spellings, refine them and go back into the world, sure that this time we will become the wizards or sorceresses only to find that we have begun the process all over again.
Finding that going back to our old ways does not really work well, we relent and simply continue our lives, only different now, sometimes because of courageous choices but often because there is so little to go back to in that old life.
When we do return to the world again, many accept us with open arms, noticing only what nice people we are, or how much more we have to offer. Others are shocked and do not quite know what to do with us. Others reject us, telling us how disappointed they are that we have “lost it”.
We are no longer acceptable in some places but much more acceptable in others, and we discover some places we did not even know existed which simply present themselves to us in our new lives.
Life is much clearer, and easier, no longer requiring endless amounts of time and energy to check and adjust our spellings. It is now just about seeing what is there and responding to what life brings our way. There is clarity. We are only required to keep ourselves healthy.
We begin to see that the only spell that matters is the true spell, our personal spell of how we are to approach life. We see others, at times, trapped inside their attempts to fit those outside spellings. We would like to tell them that they can break the spell and be released by simply refusing those outside spells and creating their own spell that will nourish and help guide them. They can finally let go of the old belief that those outside spells were what kept them alive.
Then one day we meet a wizard, or a sorceress. We finally realize that their only power comes from their ability to convince others to accept their spell. Some wizards and sorceresses have far less harmful spells than others do, but they all require that others learn the necessary spellings for followers.
And then we find the real magic. We find those who lead others, not by the force of spells, but by the energy that is released by their true selves. Others are drawn to the energy. Part of the power of that leadership is that it wants to help others to develop as individuals to find their true self, their strengths and talents and gifts; to trust their unique spell of their true self. And we see that those who are drawn to this energy are nurtured as they grow and develop as human beings.
We come to see that new, clear, comfortable reality as our real life, our role, our true calling. We see that the only spell that can truly empower us is our own unique personal spell. And it allows us to share our true energy with others, in whatever way we can, be it mundane or earth-shaking, to help others grow strong and dare to find their own individual spells to face the world.
