From the Heart: Because You Are Here

“Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?” ~Mary Oliver


I have some amazing, wonderful, brilliant, and absolutely miraculous news for you: You are here.

And when I say “here”, what I mean is that you are here, alive and in this world, in this particular time, and in this particular place that you are in.

You are breathing, you are sensing, you are taking in, and you are putting something back out.

You exist, and if this isn't a miracle and something utterly awe-inspiring, magnificent, and spectacular, then I don't know what is.

The fact that you are here is no accident.

You were beautifully, wonderfully, powerfully and passionately made.

Every detail of you, every freckle, every hair, every quirk is perfectly placed and made to experience all of life so that you may know what it is to be human, to know what it feels like to be at once flesh and spirit.

And by the mere fact that you are indeed here, you ought to know that you have a right to be here, that you have a purpose, and that you are an intricate part of the whole.

That without you, life is not the same, this experience is not the same.

That the world needs what you uniquely have, needs to hear you, needs to understand your point of view, needs to know how you see things, how you feel them, and how you feel about them.

After all, this is how we learn, how we are able to differentiate, how we understand our own individuality.

It is how we then come full circle by opening our hearts to gain empathy and compassion in order to experience the coming back together again as a whole.

And because you are here, there is something great expected from you, and that is your participation.

Through your very living, and your sharing, and your openness, and your example, the rest of us deepen our own well of knowledge of what it means to be human; and because of this, we can grow and progress and experience a metamorphosis from one way of being to another.

Without you coming together with me, there is no “us”.

I need you.

We all need you.

Because you are here, the hope is that you will share your talents with us...

Because you are here, the hope is that you will whisper your wisdom to us...

Because you are here, the hope is that you will express your voice to us...

Because you are here, the hope is that you will give of your creativity to us...

Because you are here, the hope is that you will shower the love that is in your heart upon us, and put on full display the light that is there within you to help to illuminate the path for all of mankind...

So...

Are you willing to truly be here?

Are you willing to be here fully, with gusto, with boldness, and with a sense that you belong?

This life has been given to you, and it is yours to live.

The hope is that you will take full advantage of this precious gift, so that those abundant riches that are within you may become a gift unto all of us.

Taste what's good and pass it on.

Ingrid