Happy New Year my Heroes! This is not the post I had INTENDED to share with you for the New Year, but it's the one that came out....so here it is! I've missed you! So please read, enjoy, share, and reply. Your comments keep me going, my Heroes!
My Heroes, what do you do when, in the process of providing a light in the darkness so that others may see, your battery suddenly up and dies? Or when you open the door to let someone in, only to find that you’ve literally blown a fuse, leaving all in the dark? Or when you have no power for hours on end and realize the only source of light you have (that works) is a tiny light on the keychain of life?
These scenarios all root in reality: Dropping my son off for a field trip at oh-dark-o-clock with no lights in front of the school for the kids and parents to see, so I turn on my headlights to provide the light in the darkness, only to have my battery die as soon as the busses pull out; opening the door to let someone in the other day, notice the unusual darkness, think it’s the bulb, ends up the fuse; and, first power outage of the year, caused by a blown transmitter in my neighborhood, and all I have that works to guide me from my car to my home is a tiny flashlight on the keychain that holds my house key.
My Heroes, these scenarios all strike somewhere deeper in our core and cause us to take a step back. How many personally poignant meanings can we EACH pull from that first paragraph above? All similar, yet different, based on our OWN life and experiences. I’m certain that some of your Hero brains began running a mile a minute when you read those lines above, and I want to hear those thoughts in the comments below (hint hint…).
For, my Heroes, there are times in our lives when we are simply spread too thin and maybe we know it; maybe we don’t. WE are warriors for the good of our children, our spouses or significant others, if we are blessed enough to have them, our family, our friends, our community.
Quite often, as warriors, we don’t stop to ask for help; we don’t WANT people to think us weak or incapable. We ARE warriors after all. HERO WARRIORS at that. As the HERO WARRIORS we are, we also may far-too-often get stuck between what our HEAD tells us is right and what our HEART tells us.
This isn’t a message to stop being the HERO WARRIOR you are. It’s a message that, when your battery dies; when the fuse has blown you into darkness just as you’ve opened a door perhaps to a new path; when all you have is a tiny light and a key to guide you in the darkness….
STOP. Even if only for a brief moment. DIG DEEP into yourselves and realize what this means beyond the obvious.
LOOK around you; for, even in that darkness, you really CAN see; though, perhaps, not what you THINK you NEED to see, nor what you WANT to see, but what you MUST see to help you re-start.
ASK. Ask yourselves what this darkness is trying to teach you. Ask what needs to change to keep your HERO WARRIOR lights going without burning out. Ask the difficult questions that wax and wane betwixt head and heart and if you cannot ask them yourself, then have someone else, with whom you trust your soul of souls, to ask them with you. Ask for help because there really ARE people who care, want to, and WILL.
And…..HOLD ON. Hold space with the darkness. When battles of right and wrong, head and heart, profession and personal vision or passions, friends and family, health and time, or the too-many-other battles that test our HERO WARRIORing begin to build their ammunition, all we need is ONE thing, ONE person, ONE thought, ONE TEENY-TINY light to hold on to. That’s it. We DON’T need to have answers. We DON’T need to have solutions. Not immediately, anyway. Not to get us out of the dark. No. We need to hold that space, to breathe just that one breath, to….
Just find ONE….to hold on to…and….
DON’T STOP GIVING. DON’T STOP SHARING. We ALL NEED YOUR light and YOUR fighting spirit. We also NEED you to start putting YOU higher up on the list of those for whom you warrior. Or, at least, put yourselves ON the list in the first place. Sometimes this is the hardest thing of all to do and then to maintain. Putting yourself on the list doesn’t mean you are suddenly going to have more time, or that you need to spend hours on yourself (although wouldn’t THAT be a victory…); it just means you recognize and admit to the value and importance of your OWN battles.
It’s a start. It’s a very important one. It’s one that can bring with it, for many of us, guilt….guilt for doing something for ourselves instead of someone else; guilt for choosing one side of the battle over another, whatever that choice may be; guilt for feeling as though perhaps, in doing so, you have let someone down; guilt.
Well, my amazing Hero Warriors, try a different ‘G’ word….and yes, this IS ‘G-Rated…’…instead of guilt, what if we all tried GRACE. Or even GO. Or even GOODNESS. Or….Anyone else have another good ‘G’ word? For our chocolate-lovers, how about Godiva? The point is, and I am just as GUILTY of this as the rest of you, let’s put ourselves on the list WITHOUT the heaping side-order of GUILT, and know that…
If you are a light-giver, which soooo many of you Hero Warriors are, then your heart is in the right place and I will tell you, now, you ARE making a difference, daily in all those lives for whom you so valiantly warrior on. The simple fact is, YOU are worthy of being on that list and it’s time to choose YOU. Doing so will NOT diminish the light you bring to others; it will, in fact, increase it.
So, in that darkness that can so often cloud our WARRIOR path, remember:
STOP.
DIG DEEP.
LOOK.
ASK.
HOLD ON.
And find a new ‘G’ word to order up.
Looking forward to you sharing your new ‘G’ words and your thoughts in the comments below. Please share this message, my Hero Warriors, for there are many you know who need it.
Starting a new ‘G’ revolution of light,
Lora Ackermann
Darkness Hero Trainer
My Heroes, what do you do when, in the process of providing a light in the darkness so that others may see, your battery suddenly up and dies? Or when you open the door to let someone in, only to find that you’ve literally blown a fuse, leaving all in the dark? Or when you have no power for hours on end and realize the only source of light you have (that works) is a tiny light on the keychain of life?
These scenarios all root in reality: Dropping my son off for a field trip at oh-dark-o-clock with no lights in front of the school for the kids and parents to see, so I turn on my headlights to provide the light in the darkness, only to have my battery die as soon as the busses pull out; opening the door to let someone in the other day, notice the unusual darkness, think it’s the bulb, ends up the fuse; and, first power outage of the year, caused by a blown transmitter in my neighborhood, and all I have that works to guide me from my car to my home is a tiny flashlight on the keychain that holds my house key.
My Heroes, these scenarios all strike somewhere deeper in our core and cause us to take a step back. How many personally poignant meanings can we EACH pull from that first paragraph above? All similar, yet different, based on our OWN life and experiences. I’m certain that some of your Hero brains began running a mile a minute when you read those lines above, and I want to hear those thoughts in the comments below (hint hint…).
For, my Heroes, there are times in our lives when we are simply spread too thin and maybe we know it; maybe we don’t. WE are warriors for the good of our children, our spouses or significant others, if we are blessed enough to have them, our family, our friends, our community.
Quite often, as warriors, we don’t stop to ask for help; we don’t WANT people to think us weak or incapable. We ARE warriors after all. HERO WARRIORS at that. As the HERO WARRIORS we are, we also may far-too-often get stuck between what our HEAD tells us is right and what our HEART tells us.
This isn’t a message to stop being the HERO WARRIOR you are. It’s a message that, when your battery dies; when the fuse has blown you into darkness just as you’ve opened a door perhaps to a new path; when all you have is a tiny light and a key to guide you in the darkness….
STOP. Even if only for a brief moment. DIG DEEP into yourselves and realize what this means beyond the obvious.
LOOK around you; for, even in that darkness, you really CAN see; though, perhaps, not what you THINK you NEED to see, nor what you WANT to see, but what you MUST see to help you re-start.
ASK. Ask yourselves what this darkness is trying to teach you. Ask what needs to change to keep your HERO WARRIOR lights going without burning out. Ask the difficult questions that wax and wane betwixt head and heart and if you cannot ask them yourself, then have someone else, with whom you trust your soul of souls, to ask them with you. Ask for help because there really ARE people who care, want to, and WILL.
And…..HOLD ON. Hold space with the darkness. When battles of right and wrong, head and heart, profession and personal vision or passions, friends and family, health and time, or the too-many-other battles that test our HERO WARRIORing begin to build their ammunition, all we need is ONE thing, ONE person, ONE thought, ONE TEENY-TINY light to hold on to. That’s it. We DON’T need to have answers. We DON’T need to have solutions. Not immediately, anyway. Not to get us out of the dark. No. We need to hold that space, to breathe just that one breath, to….
Just find ONE….to hold on to…and….
DON’T STOP GIVING. DON’T STOP SHARING. We ALL NEED YOUR light and YOUR fighting spirit. We also NEED you to start putting YOU higher up on the list of those for whom you warrior. Or, at least, put yourselves ON the list in the first place. Sometimes this is the hardest thing of all to do and then to maintain. Putting yourself on the list doesn’t mean you are suddenly going to have more time, or that you need to spend hours on yourself (although wouldn’t THAT be a victory…); it just means you recognize and admit to the value and importance of your OWN battles.
It’s a start. It’s a very important one. It’s one that can bring with it, for many of us, guilt….guilt for doing something for ourselves instead of someone else; guilt for choosing one side of the battle over another, whatever that choice may be; guilt for feeling as though perhaps, in doing so, you have let someone down; guilt.
Well, my amazing Hero Warriors, try a different ‘G’ word….and yes, this IS ‘G-Rated…’…instead of guilt, what if we all tried GRACE. Or even GO. Or even GOODNESS. Or….Anyone else have another good ‘G’ word? For our chocolate-lovers, how about Godiva? The point is, and I am just as GUILTY of this as the rest of you, let’s put ourselves on the list WITHOUT the heaping side-order of GUILT, and know that…
If you are a light-giver, which soooo many of you Hero Warriors are, then your heart is in the right place and I will tell you, now, you ARE making a difference, daily in all those lives for whom you so valiantly warrior on. The simple fact is, YOU are worthy of being on that list and it’s time to choose YOU. Doing so will NOT diminish the light you bring to others; it will, in fact, increase it.
So, in that darkness that can so often cloud our WARRIOR path, remember:
STOP.
DIG DEEP.
LOOK.
ASK.
HOLD ON.
And find a new ‘G’ word to order up.
Looking forward to you sharing your new ‘G’ words and your thoughts in the comments below. Please share this message, my Hero Warriors, for there are many you know who need it.
Starting a new ‘G’ revolution of light,
Lora Ackermann
Darkness Hero Trainer