“Never doubt the reality of your own inner greatness,” I heard a guy on the radio say. Nothing inside me felt especially great at the moment and I caught myself kind of rolling my eyes at the statement.
But then I thought about it a bit. First of all, I asked myself why did I automatically respond to the statement the way I did, with such a smirk on my face.
Because, I explained to myself, it’s sounds hokey, like something some slick motivational speaker in a thousand-dollar suit would say. “Well,” I said back to myself, does that make it untrue?” Ah. That was the key question. Do we possess inner greatness or not?
I had to admit to myself that of course we do. It’s just a little scary to admit it. You might have to live up to the idea of being great if you believed it was true. And besides, wouldn’t thinking you were great make you awfully prideful and pompous? Not really, the other side of me said; not if you were genuinely great.
“Hm,” I said. “Well then, what is it about us that gives us our inner greatness?”
And the other half of me said quietly, “Your ability to make your own choices, to decide who you want to be. What role will you play today? Victim or Victor? Enslaved or Free? What demeanor will you wear? One of fear or one of love?”
That was, I decided, a pretty good answer, and I thought about it a little more. I saw how the roles we play aren’t who we truly are; they’re the outward expressions of our choices.
We ourselves are the ones who choose which roles we’ll play today, and how, here on the world’s stage. Our true self is above the roles, the director of the show. Everybody is the director of his or her own show, choosing how to play each role.
Personally, I believe there’s a director above me, too, a higher voice with whom I may consult. I imagine there’s another director above that one, too, and more above that, stretching into infinity, each one offering guidance to the one below, until, multiple dimensions later, you arrive at the Ultimate Director, who guides all the rest–every actor that’s ever appeared on the stage, or ever will. And not only in this world, but in all the others, too. And the higher the director, the wiser and more loving and powerful and pure. So we can’t even begin to imagine how magnificent the Ultimate One must be. It’s an amazing picture. But that’s just me. I tend to think in images. I’m fine with your view, too. I’d probably find it interesting and amazing.
Anyway (as my dear friend Ruth says, singing the syllables slowly, when she’s ready to change a subject or get back to her point), the important thing is to realize that here, in this world, you get to choose who and how you will be. No matter what your circumstances.
And here’s a hint I adopted on my travels. It’s good to find a way to remind yourself that you are the director who decides how you’ll play your various roles, what mood and mindset you will express. Not necessarily the familiar one that you’ve been playing for a year or months or several hours now. You get to decide any minute, every minute: “How do I want to be now?” And you get to interpret what that means and how you will act it out. Remind yourself!
It’s a wondrous gift and responsibility to know you are in charge, that you get to choose how to play out every minute of your life. Accept it with reverence and humor. Then get out there and play it to the hilt. Because, you know, it’s up to you. Grab those directions and go!
Warmly,
Susan
Image by Elisa Way from Pixabay