Working With People-Daily Meditation August 23, 2022

Today’s quotation:

I’m constantly meeting people and working with people–and I’m becoming so very concerned because the people I meet are afraid to show their wonder and to show their beauty.  They are in constant doubt about being beautiful and being wonderful. . . . you may not realize it, but so much of what you are not is because you are literally standing in your own way of becoming.  And what I’m pleading with you about is, get the hell out of your way!-Leo Buscaglia

Today’s Meditation:

I take this passage very personally.  I recognize myself in it, and I see the compassion with which Leo says “get the hell out of your way.”  And since I recognize the caring and compassion, I know that what he says makes sense, that he’s telling me to get out of my way for MY good, and if that’s true then I actually should get out of my way if I’m ever going to be unafraid to show my wonder and my beauty.

In my moments on my own, when I face no feedback from others, I recognize my beauty and wonder.  I even wonder why other people don’t seem to see it and appreciate it as much as it seems they should.  And of course, the answer comes to me:  because I don’t let them see it nearly as much as I could.  How can people appreciate what they don’t see?  How can people respond to something that’s never been shown to them?  Why do I stand in my own way of becoming what I feel called to be?  What kind of silly am I being?

I would like to think that it doesn’t matter to me how other people respond to me.  I’d like to think that I’ve grown enough to be my authentic self without worrying about what others think about me.  But I know in my heart that Leo is talking about me to a certain extent, and he’s pleading with me to show the wonder and beauty that is me, this spirit who is here on the planet for a short time in a human body.

He’s pleading with you, too–for you are wonderful and beautiful, too.  And you’re worrying Leo because you aren’t showing it–you’re afraid to let others see it.  And because of that, you’re limiting yourself.  And if you limit yourself, you limit the good you can do for others.  It’s a vicious circle that starts with us standing in our own ways, afraid to show our beauty and wonder.

Please don’t be afraid–let us see your beauty and wonder, and let us see you get out of your own way.  You’ll enrich us all when you let us see these things.

Questions to consider:

In what ways do you stand in your own way?

How might you have gotten into the habit of standing in your own way?

What do you think the results would be if you didn’t stand in your own way?

For further thought:

This is the miracle of life:  that each person
who heeds him or herself knows what no
scientist can ever know:  who he or she is.-Soren Kierkegaard