On Fire: Finding Your Gift And Using It

Slaying the dragon

Let’s be honest.

Life is good, bad, fun, terrible, beautiful and painful.

Filmmaker Patrick Solomon reports he “struggled with hardship, suffered defeats…and tried to make sense of [his] world.” Seeing life through the lens of Joseph Campbell’s “hero’s journey” strengthened Patrick; so much so, he decided to bring the hero’s journey to life on the big screen.

Patrick’s film, Finding Joe, depicts every man and woman’s life journey—facing and fighting dragons, walking through open doors and returning to our community with our tale of triumph. The film is based on the narrative Joseph Campbell observed in myths across cultures from ancient history to now. 

The key is to “Follow your bliss,” taught Campbell.

“But what if I’m stuck?” you may ask. “What if my dragons keep springing back to life? What if there is no open door? How do I find my bliss then?”

The heroes in Finding Joe share from their experience:

1. You must stop listening to voices outside of yourself. Your culture, for example. Mass media conspires to keep us “tranced-out consumers” and “sheep.” External voices can also include the words of those you hold dear. “Don’t do what Daddy says,” Joseph Campbell told his students at Sarah Lawrence.

2. Identify the earplugs you use to drown out your own voice. One storyteller reports that his journey included fighting the dragon of obesity. He realized his fat kept him from feeling pain from childhood abuse. This realization was the first step to slaying his dragon.

3. Fear masks what we love. Stretch yourself. Do the things that scare you.

4. Following your bliss means you turn up the volume in your own heart: what do you love doing? If you had money and time, how would you express yourself?

5. The most powerful thing you can do is love and accept yourself as you are. Self-acceptance “lines you up with the universe.” Doors will open.

The best part is bringing back the story of how you did it.

Don’t give up.

We need you to help us…

find ourselves.

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photo credit: epSos.de (creative commons)

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Finding Joe is now available on DVD at www.findingjoethemovie.com

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Dear Reader: Thanks for stopping by ON FIRE. Your feedback is valued. You may post here in the comments or communicate with me by email: gloria@gloriarose.com.

Coffee on a cloudy day

I fill my large Einstein Bagel coffee cup with vanilla hazelnut. The woman next to me mumbles, “I should know never to book anything before 10:00 o’clock on a Monday morning.” She explained she got lost on her way to an appointment and missed it all together. Now she’s getting coffee and regretting the day—already.

I commiserate with her. “I just read most heart attacks occur on Monday morning. So, I’m with you. They’re a killer.”

“Have a good rest of your day,” I spout as I head out the door.

I had just driven three miles to buy the best-tasting cup of coffee I could find for my own reasons: I woke up with a dark cloud hanging over my soul and I can’t shake it.

Why? Did someone die? I ask myself.

Well, someone DID die. That young man in a freak climbing accident. A friend of Laura’s.

But I didn’t know him. What else?

Well, mom and dad are both struggling.

 But they’re still here. 

Did I read too much news before going to sleep?  That’s a sure path to anxiety.

Was I on facebook too much? The foreboding, “sky-is-falling” posts circling around can drag me down, for sure.

I can’t pinpoint the cause. I just know there’s a cloud, and it feels like fear.

I.

I sit in my car and take a few sips. Yum.

A thought floats up: I need to get on my own side.

I tell myself to stop colluding with fear and darkness. God loves me. I need to join Him. Be gentle with me.

The cloud lightens a little.

II.

Then a realization comes: I just bought a large cup of vanilla hazelnut coffee. I have a car to drive. I’m looking out on a beautiful mountain range. I have food to eat and a place to sleep. Friends and family.

I’m blessed. Very blessed.

I grab my journal from the back seat and make a list of my blessings. Then write:

God, I’m thankful for all these blessings. Thank you!!!!!!

Blue sky peaks through.

III.

Now what?

Contrary to how it seems some days, I’m not direction-less or useless or left out. I’ve got a Gift to give.

I decide to write a fresh answer to the “Why am I here?” question:

My life purpose is to help people see that who they are and the talents they possess make up a unique Gift that the world needs. My work is to inspire them to give their Gift.

 I reach for my lap top. Open it and being typing.

The cloud is gone.

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photo credit: Kara Allyson (creative commons)

Shoe Cobbler

Henry Linder is a 93-year-old shoe cobbler in a tiny town in the Carolinas. He’s an internet sensation right now, even though he doesn’t own a computer. Erik Olsen’s documentary on Henry just won first place in iReport’s Community Choice category.

Henry retired from the shoe business in his seventies, Olsen reports. But he returned three months later, mainly because he missed his customers. Now Henry says he’ll quit when his “toes point upwards.”

Henry is an example of doing work in a spirit of true service. His craftsmanship is superb but his focus isn’t on the shoes. “I make other people happy, or I think I do — they say I do.”

“I’ve made more friends than I’ve made money, I imagine,” he says.

Henry reminds me of someone.

Lisa (not her real name) was in an out-of-the-way place too—the Denver women’s prison. She was a student in our class, “Find Your Purpose Now.” The class was based on the assumption that everyone has a purpose and we are called to carry it out, even if we are—heaven forbid—incarcerated.

Lisa was an eager student. On the final night of class she came with her finalized purpose statement:

My life purpose is to encourage people and give them hope. I will help them become free from the past.

She’d also written out a five-point strategy on how she was going to be the encourager she felt she was called to be—in prison with her fellow-inmates.

Both Henry and Lisa know they are here to make life better for others. They are giving what they have to give in the place where they are planted.

They point the way for us:

– Do we wish we were elsewhere?

– Do we put off giving ourselves fully until things settle down? When there’s more money in the bank? When we feel stronger? When________?

Truth is, we don’t know how much time we have left here on earth. We don’t know for sure where we’ll be a year from now. Things could be more calm or more chaotic.

We must give our Gift now.

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photo credit: Bachir (creative commons)

My frozen heart

In a funk, I picked up O Magazine.

Inside Oprah interviewed Dr. Brené Brown, Houston sociologist famous for her research on shame and vulnerability.

I had viewed her TED talks. Even read Dr. Brown’s latest book, Daring Greatly. I knew the interview would be awesome: two bright women discussing threats to our relationships and well being. And what to do about it.

But Dr. Brown’s call to be daring and wholehearted bounced off my frozen heart. I was swimming in fear. My father might be dying. There were other family problems. My work felt…stupid. Self-doubt dripped off me.

I set the magazine aside.

After two days of being stuck in a dark place, I address God with humble desperation: “God I so need to get back to trusting you. Back to being your child. Help me!”

I feel my heart soften, open up.

I’m drawn back to the interview and this time read Oprah’s words:

When people say,“Why does God allow bad things to happen?” I always say, “You know, God is available to us. He’s here all the time, waiting on you.” People don’t suffer because of God. People suffer because of people. Because we don’t allow the spirit to flow through us.

Yes.

I’m God’s creation.

I’m don’t have the burden of being in charge. I get to go out and play.

I can have fun, create, be open, and love freely.

I can delight in myself, people and the whole wide world.

See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! I John 3:3 (NIV)

Something wonderful could happen today.

 Today.

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My ebook, “Blossom You,” is here (free).

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photo credit: Letting Go of Control (creative commons)