LARGENESS OF LIFE

 

I believe life is as large as we allow it to be. I also believe we are meant to live large, and only fear keeps us from fulfilling that natural, but often overlooked or denied, part of our being. 

As I think back on my life, I am surprised at how many different paths I have been down.

I've been:

A hair stylist. I owned  a shop for a few years.
A homemaker. I stayed home with my children until my youngest was in Junior High.
A Practice Manager. I managed a four doctor, thirty-five staff orthodontic practice.
A Practice Management Consultant, Seminar/Workshop leader and public speaker. I owned a management consulting firm and traveled the country consulting in orthodontic offices.
A Business Office Manager for a hospital based home health agency.
A facilitator of healing and bonding women's circles.
Owner of a therapeutic, massaging insole business. After ten years of working this business , I retired.
A writer, author and blogger.
A volunteer special advocate for abused, neglected and abandoned children.

I've done many things and been on many paths. Life has taken me in a lot of different directions.

Am I through morphing, moving, growing and changing? I don't know, but I don't think so. I am 81, but still open for new adventures. 

Have I done everything I've wanted to do? No, I would still like to bartend, I know not why. And I wanted to be a psychologist but had to drop out of school for financial reasons. 

As I look back on my life, I am glad I took all the chances I did. Over and over, I forged forward into new territory, and if I had to do it all again, I would do it the same. 

Every new adventure I took, each new territory I explored, I entered with fear and trembling. I was always afraid of failure, of looking stupid and of being thought that I was an imposter, but I kept going. I stuck with each adventure till it was over. When I knew within I was "done", I moved on. 

Today, I know I am a courageous soul, but I was not admired for my courage. In fact,  I was considered to be flighty, a person who could not make up her mind, frivolous, not quite all there, a little crazy, reckless and a gypsy. When I was younger I was a people-pleaser, so it still shocks me when I think of the daring things I chose to do, while knowing I would be judged for doing them. 

But, ho-hum, I pressed on because the largeness of life beckoned to me. I did not know then what I know now, or I should say I had not yet remembered who and what I was. All I did know was that my spirit longed to soar and to be free. 

I'm thankful I followed the call of my heart, because I am where I am due to the leading of spirit, and the courage to follow. 

Humans are created for spontaneity. We are made to be large and to expand. We each make the decision to live a small life or to be vulnerable enough to reach for the brass ring. What decision are you making? Are you settling for the known and the safe, or are you willing to expand? BE LARGE!! BE ALL YOU CAN BE!!