Original

Do you have a love/hate relationship with those who "seem" to have it all?

You admire that "they" can get so much done in 24hrs and yet the fact that they can and you can't gets on your last nerve?

What are they on? What are they taking? What miraculous source of never-ending energy are they tapped into because I want some? LOL!!

One reason being yourself is so brave is because it is a hard thing to do. It is easy to try to be tailor your life to mimick anothers. There is no challenge or creativity in that. Being a copy cat is easy.

Being an orginal is much harder.

The hardest part about being an original is that there is no blueprint or road map for you to do it. You are a trailblazer. A pioneer. The first exlporer in the new and beautiful land that is ...you!

Discovering your interests and passions in life; what you believe in; why you believe it; living what you believe takes a lifetime of practice. Knowing what you like and being alright with liking takes courage.

I used to hide the fact that I didn't like chocolate. It has never given me the thrill or elation that it has brought to the world over. In fact, I secretly longed for a chocolate chip cookie recipe that had NO chocolate chips at all. That would be divine!

I got many a strange look when I admitted it especially from other women. Some of you are gasping this very moment! It may seeem like a small insignificant admission to you. But to me, accepting this simple fact about me broke me free from pretending. Now that I don't hide "my secret" anymore I can truly enjoy the enjoyment my chocoholic friends (...and husband I might add) get from a rich decadent piece of chocolate. I don't have to pretent to enjoy it with them. I don't have to inwardly hate them because they didn't appreciate my view...a view I never verbalized to them.

Being myself, in a small thing like that, didn't end the world. It didn't end any relationship. It just ended the fear that I wouldn't be accepted.

A biblical parable advises that if we are faithful over little things, God knows we will be faithful over bigger things. The truth about chocolate in my life is a little thing that I am hoping will be the stepping stone to bigger things.

My mom and I have this playful expression we use to convey how challenging it sometimes is being in relationship with each other. One of us would jokingly gripe, "It's difficult being me." And the other would respond, "Yeah, but nobody does it better."

Ain't that the truth?!?!

Nobody does me...better than me! I am the world's best at being me. No one can do me better!
No one can do YOU better than you!

You are never going to succeed at being the best you while trying to mimick someone else. If God intended that for us, He wouldn't have given each us a unique set of fingerprints. Not replicated in any one of the over 6 billion people in the world.

If God made me an original, then I say let's get busy being original!

Wholeheartedly me,

Julia