From Mirror....

"From mirror, to window, to door"

I ran across this quote this morning.  I jotted it down quite a few months back from a lecture I heard while at a women's conference in Moab, Utah.  I really can't remember the context of which the quote was taken, but it's not necessary as all things speak to us differently at different times.  I have pondered on it and have come to find it brilliant.

We look in mirrors everyday.  We check our hair, our teeth, our makeup.  We worry so much about how others will perceive us that we tend to only focus on the attributes at the surface, but are these attributes truly what define us?   I hope not.  How often to do we pick up our mirrors and really look at who we are?  Do we see what those around us see?  Our faults?  Our strengths?  Our potential?  Or, is all of it too hard to deal with?  It's so much easier to slap on some lipstick and call it good.

The first of a new year is always a good time for self evaluation.  So many of us do it and so many of us lose sight of it a week or two in.  Change is hard and it takes time.  But most importantly, it takes a vision of what COULD be and resolve to make it so. 

Like looking out a window, as you step closer to who you truly are and your potential, your view expands as to what is possible.  To see your potential and how it can affect others and the world around you, can be overwhelming, yet empowering.  It's like admiring a beautiful landscape through a window, dreaming of what adventures you could have if you only had the courage to make it so.

Opening the door, the door that is the possibility of all that you could be, is the scariest part.  In opening the door, you open up yourself to criticism and maybe even ridicule.  That is difficult.  It's not like having a bad hair day that you can fix tomorrow, it's a judgement of who YOU are.  The trick is learning that the joy of the adventure truly outweighs the dismissal of your endeavors.  Those who want to judge will judge and those who are willing to embrace and love will choose to do so regardless.

I have so many beautiful examples of courage in my life.  Those women who embrace possibility and face it head on and never look back.  These women are the ones that encourage me to look in the mirror, dream as I gaze out my window,  push me out the door with their enthusiasm, and believe in my journey.  Thank you for seeing ME - not the outside me, but the inside me.  Your love and enlightenment inspire me along my journey.