Dear UUCV Community,
Each of us has abundant gifts through which we can be of service to the world, but if we are too busy comparing or not feeling good enough, we’ll push situations away and miss our opportunity. The idea is the job, relationship, and every encounter that is already happening in our lives is exactly where we are meant to inhabit fully, show up with love, and ask to be a blessing to those around us and thereby the world.
I recently asked Marianne Williamson why it didn’t feel like I was ever doing enough to save the world and she asked what I do for a living. When I told her I’m a DRE at a UU church, she said nothing could be more important than offering spiritual teachings to children and nurturing spiritual growth of the teachers, especially in a Unitarian church which is known for being active! It was a major pat on the back and yet…
Does it give me a pass on political activism? Operating from a sense of abundance and enoughness with the interactions of love and service in my daily life and inhabiting every space I’m currently in to my fullest capacity will enable me to do more. But if I am constantly looking to the horizon to see what more I could be doing instead of showing up fully where I already am, I’m going to not only miss out on the future growth, but miss the opportunities right in front of me where I’ve been called to show up with love!
She also told me to drop the violins and give up my trembling lip because there are women around the world who would be stoned for standing up and speaking at a microphone to ask a question like I did! That’s been playing in my head over and over again.
So I hope each of us will celebrate and recognize the abundance of opportunity to share love, do good, build each other up, and serve everyone we encounter in our communities, even amid the despair and heartbreak.
This is the true joy in life, the being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one. ~George Bernard Shaw
With love and light, Emily Carroll
emily@uuventura.org
805-644-3898
administrator@uuventura.org
