The importance of accepting who you truly are

“Every creator painfully experiences the chasm between his inner vision and its ultimate expression.”
Isaac Bashevis Singer

Have you ever felt the pain of not living up to your own potential? Have you had moments when you did not express who you truly are but fell from a self imposed pedestal? One moment you were so high and on track with your life’s path then in the split second you become saddened and perplexed by the way you acted in one situation or another. You became human and in this humanness you felt the sorrow and pain of the distance you have to travel to be the vision of your dreams.

“Pain is inevitable; suffering is optional.”
Unknown

When we fall from our pedestal we feel pain and we suffer so much. Our pain is so deep that the world around us seems to enfold and our vision becomes blurred and we fear that we may not be able to climb up out of the blackness we see around us. We shrink instead of expand. We feel from the deepest part of our soul the pain of being less instead of the wonder of feeling more.

“I have heard of your paintings too, well enough; God has given you one face, and you make yourselves another.”
William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), "Hamlet", Act 3 scene 1

We know the beauty of who we are and miss the glow of its warmth and the joy of its expanse. We feel the difference and in that feeling we see who we can be and recognize how much we need love.

“One word
Frees us of all the weight and pain of life:
That word is love.”
Sophocles (495 BC - 406 BC), Oedipus at Colonus

It is love that brings us out of despair and it is love that frees us from remorse. It is love that allows us to feel the wonder of the vision of our God face. It is love that forms the rungs we climb in order to know the heights of our true potential. Why do we lose love? Why do we so quickly let go of the rung we have achieved and slip into the abyss from which we must find our pathway home.?

“If we deny love that is given to us, if we refuse to give love because we fear pain or loss, then our lives will be empty, our loss greater.”
Unknown

We let go because we deny the pain and fail to allow those close to us to help us find the courage to continue the climb. We fail to allow our closest friend to touch our hearts or fail to put out our hand to give that friend comfort when comfort is needed. We become less because we deny ourselves the beauty of another’s love.

“When we honestly ask ourselves which person in our lives mean the most to us, we often find that it is those who, instead of giving advice, solutions, or cures, have chosen rather to share our pain and touch our wounds with a warm and tender hand. The friend who can be silent with us in a moment of despair or confusion, who can stay with us in an hour of grief and bereavement, who can tolerate now knowing, not curing, not healing and face with us the reality of our powerlessness, that is a friend who cares.”
Henri Nouwen, Out of Solitude

When we accept love and embrace it with all our heart we begin to become that vision we desire. We become a better soul and can give that love to those we meet in life. We begin to climb to the heights of our dreams and become a beacon to which others will be drawn.

“The pain passes. The beauty remains.”
Auguste Renoir

Each of us is a beautiful reflection of the Creator’s love. It is this beauty that forms our essence and gives light to our souls to become all we envision. When we hold onto the vision of this beauty and allow its light to shine upon our lives sorrow and pain fade from view and we then become the purest distillation of our being. We become all that we can be and give others the wonder of who we truly are.

“Accept the pain, cherish the joys, resolve the regrets; then can come the best of benedictions - 'If I had my life to live over, I'd do it all the same'.”
Joan McIntosh

By accepting who we are as imperfect as that can be and allowing our lives to radiate that essence to others we can move forward along our path and climb higher and higher. We can look toward the future with peace and create the vision of our dreams. Our life will expand and within that expansion we can achieve our greatest dream.

“The first hope of a painter who feels hopeful about painting is the hope that the painting will move, that it will live outside its frame.”
Gertrude Stein (1874 - 1946