Hellooo Monday!
I love Mondays. It's a fresh start to the week, my only guaranteed day off work and it's rarely crowded anywhere on Mondays. The best.
I also am in love with this jumpsuit, it makes me feel like a diva straight out of the 70's. The one-piece, denim and wide-leg flare trend wrapped up into one!
Speaking of trends, the subject of spiritual gifts running in family lines has been highlighted to me a lot this past week. There are "talents" and "strengths" that run in every family, both down the mother's side and the father's side, and I call them gifts. For example, a gift of having a "6th sense" to be able to read people and know what's going on behind the scenes or having intuitions, gut feelings and dreams that bring up information you wouldn't know otherwise is a gift. I recognize this one because it runs in my family, strongly down my mother's generational line. And the interesting thing is that with any gift, it is multi-faceted and operates differently in my mom than it does in my sister, brother and I. It may sound odd, but my mom has dreams and intuitions about what's going on with the land, and what has happened in certain places and what needs to be done for healing. My sister has super sensitive intuition about what's going on with other people that they never told her about. My brother gets symbolic dreams that tell him things that are about to happen. And as for me, part of my version is that I both physically and emotionally experience atmospheres. Say my boss at work is having a hard day filled with anxiety, and I had a totally normal day, peaceful, I went to the gym and read a book. Then I come into work and I physically feel a weight on my chest, like it's harder to breathe and my head is suddenly spinning so much I can't even walk or talk straight! That's because I am experiencing what is going on with my boss. I used to feel like I was unstable and could never predict whether I was going to be "ok" going to certain places or being around certain people, because I didn't understand my gift. But now I'm able to recognize what I feel like and what my status quo is that day so that when I am physically and emotionally taken over by someone else's whirlwind I know that it's not mine and can deal with it pretty quickly.
A gift that strongly runs down my dad's side of the family is discernment. In the dictionary it says "the ability to judge well." The gift of discernment has to do with being able to tell what's going on behind the scenes, knowing something's up and if someone is being honest or taking advantage of you or manipulating you. It feels like an alarm bell ringing in your head when you feel like someone's motives are not pure and there's something else going on, even if you don't know what it is exactly. All this talk about spiritual gifts probably has you wondering something along the lines of, "how do I find out mine?" One way to delve into this arena is to pay attention to what each member of your family is good at "naturally," and try to find a common theme. Another way is to ask your friends "what do you think I'm good at and known for, and what are my family's strengths?" Because a sure sign of a gift is that you would think "well doesn't everybody think like that? Isn't that what everyone does too?" As with any gift, once you recognize it the next step is to learn how to develop it, to know it's strengths and weaknesses and how to not overextend it. With discernment, the information that the gift gives you can give you the tendency to put up your guard towards certain people who you can feel aren't being real or honest with you. And even use it to justify a negative opinion of someone and shutting them out completely. But the true purpose of this gift isn't to use it against people or build walls around yourself, but to use it as a tool to know that something is up so that you can navigate things wisely and not be taken advantage of, and then to choose to look for the best, the strengths and the "gold" in the person to bring them to a higher level of who they truly are. My dad really understood this gift and always reminded me growing up to assume the best about people, even if you can feel that there's something else going on. To never hold judgements and to give others the benefit of the doubt. Sometimes this felt naive and unwise but I realize that my father taught me this to balance out the gift of discernment from being overextended, so that I wouldn't be suspicious and judgmental every time that alarm bell went off in my head. As I've grown up and developed in communication skills, I've found it a great practice to trust that the hearts of those close to me is good, that they have good intentions towards me and verbally clarifying if there's any discrepancies I feel going on, instead of making assumptions.
I'm excited for this week because my best friend flies into town and we're headed up to Portland for a wedding! It's going to be a flurry of fun activities. I hope you enjoyed stopping by my blog, and have a wonderful week.
xx
Photos by Megan Walton
Jumpsuit: Lovers + Friends
Crossbody: Rebecca Minkoff
Sandals: Topshop
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