Write to Empower Archives - New Eyes For New Year

New Eyes for a New Year

Marcel Proust, "The voyage of discovery is not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes."

Part of the promise of a new year is seeing the world with new eyes. At the start of a new year we imagine that we can boldly go where no woman has gone before. We can chart a new course, see new worlds, and become who we are really meant to be. What does this mean in our daily lives? When we are offered this New Year as a promise of hope do we use this as a search for purpose in our lives, or simply a way of changing the window dressing “to look better?” Does anything stop us from knowing, acknowledging and appreciating our purpose in being here now? When we have roadblocks in recognizing our purpose they are our fears, old beliefs, or just any old garbage we have carried way too long. Our fears are a direct result of our beliefs. Or, more specifically our fears are the result of challenging our beliefs.

Speaking of beliefs…I thought I had to be really “nice” because I wanted people to like me. To be a woman of substance, my fears told me that I had to have people like me. The truth is I am actually not that nice, and I am more substantive when I am authentically myself. Trying to be “nice” traps me in a quagmire of resentments, which arrive when my expectations are not met or clearly communicated. I choose to no longer drown in resentments. Instead, my new eyes will focus on me and loving myself more, and care less about whether people like me.

Today, I am grappling with the fact that my self-image is way behind people’s perceptions of who I am. Lately I have been told by people who I know love me that I appear to be someone who is successful, and has things together in life. When I consider embracing that self image I know I can be more effective and accomplish more of my purpose in being here. One of my purposes in life is feeling I have made a difference in people’s lives; that by laughing with them, working with them, listening to them, loving them, their lives are better. And this purpose is not work, it is my soul’s delight. Mark Twain, “What work I have done I have done because it has been play. If it had been work I shouldn't have done it...”

This week’s exercise has 3 parts: The first is to ask yourself, “Do you really believe you have a purpose for being on the planet?” Your purpose can be simple to be the most loving person I can be every day. Or your purpose can be to share with the world your visions in the form of fine art, music, poetry, or theater. Only you can determine your purpose. The 2^nd part is to ask yourself, “What do you think your purpose is and how do you live it?” Be specific with how you will work with your purpose. How will you be the most loving person you can be? Will you smile at all you meet, will you always react with compassion, refrain from gossip? The 3^rd part is to write this purpose down and make it into a beautiful reminder to help reclaim yourself when you feel lost. You are a soul who happens to have a body, and every soul counts and has a purpose for being here now.

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