Shine!

From Daily Om:

Burning Brightly: Allowing Your Soul To Shine

At times, we’ve all wanted to crawl under a rock and hide away from the world. We may have preferred to be invisible rather than let other people see us or notice that we exist. This desire not to be seen often happens when we are feeling very hurt, angry, or simply weary of the world. And while we may console ourselves with the defense that we are shy, an introvert, or a loner, we may actually be hiding.

When we hide and make believe that we are invisible, we can think that we no one sees us even though, truthfully, we are only really hiding from ourselves. And while we may try to live life as inconspicuously as possible, we only succeed in becoming more conspicuous because people can’t help but notice that we are trying to hide our light. None of us are meant to hide; each one of us radiates a unique brilliance that is meant to illuminate the world. When we try to dim our light, we diminish the natural radiance of the Universe, and we deprive the people around us of the unique gifts and talents that we are here to share.

Stepping out of the wings and letting your light shine is actually a way to serve the planet. We each have a responsibility to contribute to our community, and we do this when we let ourselves be seen. It doesn’t do anyone any good when we try to hide. We are all beings of light and we are here to light the way for each other. When we let ourselves shine, we become a bright mirror that others can see their own reflected brilliance through, and they can’t help but want to shine also. Shine your light out into the world, bless those around you by sharing your gifts, and watch the universe glow.

Eckhart Tolle

Hi all,

This is one of the best interviews I have seen with Eckhart Tolle. Part three of this interview speaks directly to what we have been working on.

Blessings,Dave

From the Bakers - Week 2

We have the most wonderful group! It was hard to keep our week-two discussion down to two hours. Only one member attended the service last week and took the $10. He used the money to invest in Kiva.org, an organization that allows you to lend to a specific entrepreneur in the developing world, empowering the recipient to lift themselves out of poverty. It has a 98% success rate – unheard of from traditional lending sources. This is a great example for using our Helping gifts! Until next week… Vickie

Mike Betot's group

In my study this week one of the members gave a great example of the difference between person oriented and task oriented. They are part of a gala to raise money for abused children. Would you rather be the person out soliciting money and donations, or would you rather be setting up the tables and chairs? Both are valuable, and both need to be done. I know we had some discussion around this subject and I thought this cleared it up pretty well for me.

Love & Light,Mike

Week 2 from Paula

Our spiritual gifts group met this morning. We started by listening to the first track of Andrew Harvey's Meditations for Sacred Activists CD. A couple of people had their own copies of it and said that they thought it was worth listening to. So, I think I will use it each week from now on to set the tone for our discussion.

We shared stories about how folks used their $10 from Sunday to pay it forward. Only a couple of folks had used theirs as of today. This generated a lot of discussion on ways to use the money.
It also brought up a discussion on who is most worthy of receiving the money in each person's eyes. Some thought that you should do a little research about the organizations that you might donate to. Others felt there shouldn't be any strings attached to what the person or organization
used the money for. All in all it made for a good discussion about just what is the intention when you are making a donation.

The group has made name tags with their name and the top three spiritual gifts listed below their name. Each week we are going to try to learn what each other's gifts are so that by the end of the study we have learned more about each other than just a name and a face. We took turns talking about their specific gifts and the ways it showed up for them. The stories were heartfeld, meaningful and affirmed what they seemed to already know about themselves.

One person thought that it would be a good idea to look at your spiritual gifts and see how they are expressed through your Myers-Briggs assessment. According to the Myers and Briggs foundation, "Perception involves all the ways of becoming aware of things, people, happenings, or ideas. Judgment involves all the ways of coming to conclusions about what has been perceived. If people differ systematically in what they perceive and in how they reach conclusions, then it is only reasonable for them to differ correspondingly in their interests, reactions, values, motivations, and skills." So, a person who might have creative ability as one of their gifts may actually perceive creativity in very different ways. Someone mentioned that one might be good at "decking the halls" at Christmas while another might think of new ways to celebrate Christmas by bobbing for apples We decided that each person's gifts are truly unique to them and could be manifested differently according to their personality type.

Once we started into the workbook to learn about creative abilities and the serving gifts we ran out of time to completely discuss them all. We did not break into groups but will try that next week. James Taylor was playing in Moores Square today so some folks wanted to get to the concert. I received lots of thoughtful comments about the assessment and the workbook as we went along. They are relatively minor things that I have noted in my copy. I hope you will share comments that you had about the material, too.

I enjoyed reading about how your groups are going so please continue to write and share your ideas. Especially, post any stories about the $10 pay it forward.

Gifted

A thought from Hazelden:

All of us are gifted. Every person has a gift that can bring great joy and light to those who encounter it. Our task is to stand in the sun and create a climate that will develop and nurture our gift.

Sometimes we are afraid to let ourselves believe that we have anything special to offer or contribute to the world. We think of ourselves as plain and untalented, with no gifts or special potential. But if we believe we are limited, we act in a limited way. We take few risks and follow few paths that might develop our special talents and gifts.

To fully believe in our talents , we need only step from the darkness into the sun. We will take this first step, trust enough, and start believing that YES, we do have special gifts.

Prayer: Today let me be aware of my deep and unfulfilled desires, dreams, and wishes, which is the first step on the way to accepting my gifts.

What breaks your heart

Susan Tingley has sent this follow up to her earlier email (and the subsequent post here) about finding the thing that breaks your heart:

What follows is the best of our memory of what Andrew suggested as a method of identifying your heart-break that will open you to activism:

Set your alarm for the middle of the night, 2:00 or 3:00 a.m. Get up then, and pray or meditate. Then ask to open your heart. Allow the wounded parts of the world to come into your heart and mind. Feel the hurt, fully. You will find the one that hurts the most.