The world in which we live can prove disastrously challenging.  Especially when one is trying to live one’s truth.  What I have learned in the last week is that people will always have a reason for you not to own your truth and allow you to stand within it.  The great gift of this universe is that we do not require the permission of others to be who we were meant to be.

Standing in one’s truth may prove difficult at first; there may be others around you that will belittle you, insult you, envy you, make things difficult for you.  However, there is a greater strength at work here:  you.   As Iyanla Vanzant said many years ago, “a child of God with a made up mind is a powerful thing!”   One does not have to name a deity or believe in a particular religion to have this be true.  One simply needs to identify the truth of his/her own life and live it.   Yes, this can be more difficult than anything you have ever attempted, however, the greater power of you aligned with a universe that is on the same wavelength will conquer the insulters, the enviers, the people who do not believe that you have the right or the power to live your best life.

Whether your truth is being a teacher, a photographer, a writer, a singer, a stay at home parent, acknowledge this.  If your truth is identifying with your sexual orientation or living outside of the culture in which you were raised, acknowledge this.  If your truth is admitting that you have more debt than you know what to do with, acknowledge this.  Once you have the presence of mind to acknowledge your truth, whatever it might be, you will understand in your own life, how to express that truth.  And that expression doesn’t have to be grandiose in nature; one step at one time will lead to a “road less travelled.”

From Marianne Williamson, one of my favourites,  “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate, our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure….Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you….And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

May the truth in which you stand light the way in service, in compassion and in the upliftment of people everywhere.