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Have you ever found yourself being inspired by reading the back of a cereal box–a kids cereal, box of sugar and small amounts of wheat fortified with some nutrients? Right now Frosted Mini Wheats–blueberry muffin flavor has a Kung Fu Panda Blanket/Cape offer going on. The back of the box has a description of the movie Kung Fu Panda.
Peaceful Valley finds itself threatened by the evil Snow Leopard, Tai Lung. Po, the daydreaming, noodle loving panda is unexpectedly chosen to defend his town in a Kung Fu showdown. Po puts his heart into the task and finds that being himself and doing his best are his greatest weapons in the battle to save his friends.
Being himself and doing his best… those words echoed in my mind. For the past week I have been asking myself, “What makes people popular and well liked?” The people I know who got chosen as “Best All Around” for their senior class, the ones who have the most friends on Facebook, the people who have the largest circle of influence are the ones who aren’t afraid to be themself. They don’t hide who they are, or at least the give the appearance of openness. They make no bones about what they want to be when they grow up or where they are going in life.
Why are we drawn to these people? They are not afraid of the things that we are afraid of. They are not afraid of themself the way that I am afraid of myself–or at least afraid of what you might think of me. Passion, authenicity, openness…I’m one to talk about that stuff. I can barely even admit to myself that I’ve dreamt of being a writer all my life, much less tell someone else with confidence. I find myself apologizing for my passions and my dreams. Most of my openness comes in the form of an self-depreciation for my own failure to live up to my standard of perfection. And here I am apologizing again…for apologizing.
The only question left for the day is:
Am I ready for this? Are you?
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Great questions to ponder! I agree: The more comfortable I am with who I am and where I’m at this moment in life, the easier it is for me to connect with others. But another road I’ve found to connection is to give others grace for where they are in this moment—something about that helps every to settle down inside! The more grace I extend to others, the easier it is to accept my own need for it too. I’ll be chewing on this for the afternoon now . . . thanks!