Allison's Wanderland

Who am I to deny a gift? Who are you?

It’s time to stop playing small. It’s time to step into the creative expression that is me. That is YOU.

It has always been uncomfortable for me to receive praise for my creative endeavors. Not because I don’t love a good compliment, but I think I feel like it’s not really me creating it. I knew how to do whatever it was, It just came sort of naturally. I didn’t really have to learn it.

This is the malaise of the creative. But it’s not just artists, writers, dancers and anyone else that’s not a scientist; it’s scientists too.

Each of us is creative. Period. Sometimes our natural talent is painting, sometimes its accounting, or even football. When we are working with the gifts that have come through us, we’re not really ‘doing’ it and so getting attention for it may feel uncomfortable. However when we learn something then practice it, it’s okay to be rewarded for that?

Here’s how I see the differences: Skill is something acquired through education and practice. Talent is something innate, something that comes through from the Divine, God, the Universe, Kermit the frog, whatever your idea of the Big Unknown is. It is consciousness manifest.

And if it is consciousness, it is not ego. It is the ego that decides whether to reject or accept the compliment and if the ego did not ‘do’ it, it gets a little squirrely taking credit.

I have learned how to use a camera, but perhaps it is my eye that allows me to capture the magic I see. I have studied writing through classes, workshops and reading great masters, but it seems to be my insight and perspective that speak the loudest to people. I have taken a talent or gift, added a dash of education and study and parlayed it into a paid(ish) hobby. And certainly a passion.

We all have gifts. Every. Single. One. Of. Us. It is the wily ego that often prevents us from realizing their full potential. They flow through us, filtered by the ego, necessarily filtered by the ego – but sometimes the ego is feeling a bit peckish. Perhaps it’s feeling less than or not good enough, then the gifts never get delivered. Or it could be feeling a might bit self-important and we try to force our gifts onto others or mold them into what we think will be liked.

My personal issue with all this malarkey is the power I’ve allowed my ego to assert. It’s time to sit my ego and down and have a chat. It wants me to believe that because I just know how to do something that it doesn’t have value. It wants me to believe that I need A LOT more training and education and the timing isn’t right. But it will be ‘soon’ or ‘someday.’ It’s ‘out there.’

The cure, as I see it, is to simply step into the flow of creative consciousness and allow myself to be carried. Trust that I know enough to be exactly where I am. There is only this precious present moment and if I do not seize it to fulfill my creative potential, it will be lost forever.

My unique expression is important. Your unique expression is important. God don’t make junk and She certainly doesn’t make mistakes. If you feel with every twitchy nerve in your body that you were put on this earth to write a modern opera in pig Latin that takes place under the full moon at Stonehenge, then do it! Immediately!

Rather than fight with your ego, make nice. Rather than change the form you’re in, love it. There is a reason why you look, talk, sing, argue, dance and create the way you do. It’s why we love you.

A refusal of your gifts is a denial of your purpose.

I, for one, am learning that my eye, my insight, my quirky and sometimes edgy perspective has value to others. Perhaps it causes them to think about something in a new way. Maybe they disagree so vehemently with me that it helps fortify their own belief system. Or maybe I just make them laugh. It all matters. I matter.

You matter.

Your Divinely Bestowed Unique Gifts + Your Quirky, Awesome, Silly, Serious, Devastatingly Handsome, Sexy-As-All-Get-Out, Smart, Funny Personality (Ego) + Education and skill building = One Tall Cuppa Steaming Awesomeness that is YOU.

Now go out (or inward, if that’s your thing) and make some magic to share with the world. Just being you stirs the energy of this big blue marble. I can feel it. Can you?