I invite you to close your eyes,
Relax your body,
Maybe take a couple of slow,
Deep breaths,
Softening any tension around your shoulders,
Your belly.
Don't ask what the world needs.
Ask what makes you come alive and go out and do it,
Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.
This is a quote from Howard Thurman.
Don't ask what the world needs.
Ask what makes you come alive and go out and do it,
Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.
Don't ask what the world needs.
Ask what makes you come alive and go out and do it,
Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.
As you allow these words to settle into your soul,
Become aware of any feelings,
Sensations,
Thoughts or images that might come,
And notice what you notice.
What makes you come alive?
What can you do with that?
Ask yourself,
What makes me come alive?
What can I do with that?
What are the times when you feel most vivid,
Energized and engaged?
What patterns emerge when you look at the times or circumstances that your unique gifts shine through?
What are those patterns?
Our passionate responses to life are like a string of shining lights guiding us home to ourselves into deeper meaning.
These lights are the talents,
Perspectives and gifts that long to be expressed through us for the world.
So now is the time to ask yourself,
What makes me come alive and what can I do with that?
We're often guided to try to find our bliss and to follow that,
But following this directive can be like chasing sunshine.
We can often better know what is meant for us or what makes us really come alive when we notice the circumstances that light us up from the inside and make us shine.
So what is the pattern of these circumstances that really light us up from the inside and make us shine?
Remembering that the world doesn't need us to do a specific thing.
The world needs people who come alive.
Take in these words.
The river is famous to the fish.
The loud voice is famous to silence which knew it would inherit the earth before anybody said so.
The cat sleeping on the fence is famous to the birds.
Watching him from the birdhouse,
The tear is famous briefly to the cheek.
The idea you carry close to your bosom is famous to your bosom.
The boot is famous to the earth,
More famous than the dress shoe which is famous only to the floors.
The bent photograph is famous to the one who carries it and not at all famous to the one who is pictured.
I want to be famous to shuffling men who smile while crossing streets,
Sticky children in grocery lines,
Famous as the one who smiled back.
I want to be famous in the way a pulley is famous or a buttonhole,
Not because it did anything spectacular but because it never forgot what it could do.
So what can you do?
Can you remember what you can do?
What makes you come alive?
Remembering not to ask what the world needs but to ask what makes you come alive.
To remember that.
To go out and to do that because of what the world needs is for you to come alive.
