What Happens When We Stop Dismissing What Comes Easy
And let our natural gifts lead the way
I love possibilities.
We’re some multifaceted creatures.
Top of my list,
Spiritual evolution.
Other venues I dance:
Health and fitness. I love working out. I’m not perfectly consistent, but I’m consistent enough to keep me feeling fueled and strong.
Cooking. A necessary love, since we have kids and added an exchange student to the mix this year. Side note. I once made prickly pear cactus jelly with a dear cousin of mine in Austin, Texas. You have to use tongs to handle the fruit. Best jelly ever!
Real estate. I apparently love housing others. I enjoy creating safe, comfortable homes where people can launch into the world and return for recharge.
Entrepreneurship. I joke with our kids that I have eight years of college and no master’s degree. How smart is that? With a degree in product design and a career as a nurse, my mind is always thinking of ideas to help others live their best lives.
Travel. What’s not to love about seeing the world and the people of the world?
Mothering. Truth time—I don’t always like this role. But I’m in it, so I do my best. Don’t get me wrong. I love these little creatures to the moon and back. But just like growth can bring “mild discomfort,” parenting can drain you. Mohave-desert dry. It reminds me of the movie Gerry with Matt Damon. One of those films you either love or hate. I loved it, and the desert cinematography still gets under my skin.
Recently, I had a session with
founder of The Creator Retreat and cohosted with . Teri Leigh is one wise and connected and insightful and generous woman. And the community she helps curate has a tangible energy that feels warm and holding. I left that Zoom soaring, and I woke up still higher than a kite. Naturally.It’s like I’ve been running full speed in circles, fueled by my very right-brained energy. She caught me by the shoulders, squared me in a direction, and then let go.
Now I feel like I’m still running full speed, but toward a goal. Or rather, a specific unfolding.
She helped me name some of my underlying strengths—the things that come naturally, the things I love, the things I’m wired for. The ones I wrote out in bold Sharpie on my blueprint of incarnation: “I can be deficient in some areas so I can grow them for the race. But I must have these strengths to get me through.”
And this morning more strengths kept surfacing. One I remembered is that I’m a natural at emulating. I have a lot of Pisces in my chart, which probably explains it. If I hang out with a friend long enough, I start laughing like them, until I forget what my own laugh used to sound like. It used to bother me, like I was losing myself. But I realized somewhere along the way that I just like trying things on. See how they fit. I think I would be bored stiff otherwise.
Lately, I’ve been listening to Bird by Bird. Anne Lamott is brilliant and so funny. Hearing her read her own words on Audible makes it even better. It’s been a slow listen for me because I need time to soak it all in.
I realized that when I stop knocking myself down, I have a humor side too. When we recognize a quality in others, it means we also have it. Every trait we admire is mirrored in us.
So I proclaim, moving forward, I embrace my strengths. We all have them. I don’t think any of us were reckless enough to say, “Give me a full deck of challenges to unfold in this lifetime.”
Our strengths are like a compass. They point us in the direction that feeds our soul with ease, and they carry us through the bumps in the road. The bumps that feel like roller coaster drops, and the bumps that invite us to realign.
I’m learning that being multifaceted isn’t about doing it all. It’s about honoring the strengths that keep surfacing, the ones that feel like a compass pointing me back to myself. When I lean into them, the road feels less like a grind and more like an unfolding.
How ‘bout you? What strengths have been quietly waiting for your attention? What gifts come so naturally you almost dismiss them? Maybe today is the day to name them, embrace them, and let them guide you through the bumps and turns of your unfolding.
💚✨ Dancing on the Edge of Enlightened
—Edge Dancer · Connie
Connie, I loved the line Rick quoted and I loved that you reinforced it at the end! “I’m learning that being multifaceted isn’t about doing it all. It’s about honoring the strengths that keep surfacing, the ones that feel like a compass pointing me back to myself.”
Those strengths and the compass pointing back to ourself is about listening to what is true inside us.
Thank you for this beautiful post.
I love that image of me grabbing you (and your black sharpie) and squaring you off in a direction before letting you go again. and btw - I am Pisces Rising...so I get you girlfriend!
Keep posting, on a schedule. We want to read what you have to say.