Empowerment
My muscles and joints are sore – in that good “I’ve been out digging in the dirt and felt mostly okay until it was time to move in an upright position again” way.
My once appreciation for well-manicured and thoughtfully curated gardens has given way to a desire to show off nature’s splendor in a native and pollinator-friendly type of laziness. Unfortunately, in order to establish the lazy gardener's and pollinator’s Eden, it takes years of removing weeds while the native plants take root.
I’m not sure if there is such a thing in life where you can just do the fun part and be done?
Everything requires some sort of maintenance, promotion, paperwork, or new skills training.
My garden has the maintenance and new-skill parts this year (last year I had paperwork too, but that’s another story). I’m finding that even with my new knowledge that much of it is still a guessing game. “If I remove the leaves to let the new growth come through, will I be destroying sleeping bees and butterfly cocoons?”. “What is this crazy weather where it’s late May and we haven’t had a week straight of nights above 50 degrees?” “Could someone just come do this for me?”
And there it is – this week’s message: Empowerment
Just because I don’t know all there is to know about a subject doesn’t mean I’m not capable of doing it.
Just because something is new to me is not indicative of my ability to be successful.
Just because there are people doing what I want to (or need to) do who are considered experts doesn’t mean I shouldn’t do it too. Afterall, if something brings me joy or health or ease what does it matter how good I am at it? There is value at every level.
The Cambridge Dictionary defines empowerment as the process of gaining freedom and power to do what you want or to control what happens to you.
As human beings, we are gifted with free will. It’s important that we recognize that not only do we have choice around who, how, what, and where we want to live our lives, we also have power.
It’s important that we exercise that power, not give it away because we feel inferior.
One of my favorite things to do is teach.
When I was in high school and college, I taught swimming lessons and water aerobics. When I was a newlywed, I taught faith formation classes. I became a Mary Kay Consultant and taught people how to take care of their skin and apply makeup. When I became a mom, I was first a leader (Girl Scouts, Family Group, Book Club, and Art Docent) at school before becoming a substitute teacher. When I started Peaceful Soulutions LLC, I began teaching classes: Reiki, Angels, Automatic Writing, and more.
Every person who took my classes learned a skill that gave them some form of autonomy.
I love doing things for others, but even more I get excited when I can help others not be reliant on me. It’s not that there isn’t a time and place to ask others for help, but if I can help you (for example) learn to read angel cards and trust your own intuition on a daily basis, isn’t that better than calling me each week to pull cards and interpret them for you before you make your next move?
Empowerment is about doing things that are new and uncomfortable, and learning that even if you will never be an expert, you are capable of more than you thought.
