It is hard for me to realize that there are other people who are in a similar place to where I am, but then I get this in my email. I'm still feeling guilt about the part I played in the divorce...there are times when I still want to scream out how sorry I am. I am trying very hard; I wonder if I will ever meet someone who gets this about me. What seems so matter-of-fact and easy to most is really challenging to me. I thought Chuck understood...but now I realize that he didn't know me very well at all, if he believed that I was just lazy or was just knowingly taking advantage of him.
----- Forwarded Message ---- From: FLYLADY Subject: FLYLADY: Morning Musing: Let your Light Shine!
Dear Friends,
Even though we have been told most of our lives that we are lazy, air heads and day dreamers; we have always known that was not what our problem. We may not have known what our issue was but we were trying hard get things done. We took those words into our brains and we have repeated them back to ourselves. Even when the people who said them were no longer in our presence their words haunted us. We don't have to live this way another day!
We have to ability to build our own selves up and we have the tools to do it! We are creative and strong! We may not have had parents who understood our character, but we survived! The other night I woke up from a dream and had to write down what I remembered. I was interviewing a doctor and I ask him how he cured this lady; I was told that all it took was for her to recognize her own beauty!
Each one of us has a light that shines. Some of our lights have been shaded by those negative words we have heard all our lives. We have to remove that shroud of sadness that has dimmed our lights and let our light shine! Let me start this process by reminding you that our parents did all they knew to do! Their little lights were dimmed too. We begin this process with forgiveness. Forgive them because they did not know what they were doing.
It is hard to see beauty when the light is not on! How can we rekindle that light? It is not as easy as just flipping a switch. It took years of that negativity to paper over our little lights. At times we were fumbling in the dark just grasping for any ray of hope! All we ever wanted was to be happy! Why weren't we happy! We searched high and low for something to make us happy! We didn't like that feeling of sadness; that's when we reached for things to deaden the pain. It could have been with food, alcohol, drugs, isolation, shopping, volunteering too much, work or obsessive control. Whatever your drug of choice was or is, we don't have to hide who we are another moment.
I am reminded of a song that I used to sing in Sunday school. I want you to think of this song as a melody for your heart. This little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine. I won't let anyone blow it out! I'm gonna let it shine! Hide it under a bushel - NO! I'm gonna let it shine! Let it shine over the whole wide world, I'm gonna let it shine.
Our brains are filled with negative sayings. I want you to think of this as a lampshade that has been plastered with things that have been cut out of the newspaper or a magazine. See it all cluttered up and in a jumbled mess. As we recognize those words that have dimmed our little lights, I want you to pull that piece of dark ugly aged paper off of your lampshade and see a little light shine through. You have the ability because you are creative! As we peel away those layers of negativity your beauty will shine! You knew it was there all the time!
Go shine your sink! This is not a metaphor. Take this action and see that little ray of hope for yourself! Your shiny sink is just the beginning!
Let your light shine and see the beauty that is you!
