45 – February 15
“Too many people miss the silver lining because they’re expecting gold.”—Maurice Setter
It was Tuesday afternoon, and I was at the Westside lunch meeting of Women’s Referral Service. I showed my friend, Lynn Kerew, my page on “Suze Orman is Living My Life.” She laughed, but then looked me straight in the eye. “Don’t you know there are people here who are looking at you, saying ‘Chellie Campbell is living my life’?” she said. “You’re a Life Member, a Member of the Year Award winner, you know everybody, and half the people in the room have taken your workshop. In this circle of people, you’re the Suze Orman!”
Oh, thank you, Lynn, for the reminder. I was focusing on what I didn’t have instead of what I do have. I was looking at how successful I wasn’t instead of how successful I was. Lynn got me back to reality—by playing the “Glad Game” with me. It was great.
She went on to say that she was moaning to herself the week before that she only had one hundred fifty patients a week in her chiropractic practice and her goal was to have three hundred. But then she remembered that a year ago she only had fifty! So she had a choice: She could moan about what she didn’t have or she could celebrate what she did have. And she decided she would live in celebration. Then she told me where she learned it.
From me.
Today’s Affirmation:
“I am the most successful me I know!”
“Your message is medicine for the world and you were chosen to deliver it.”–Nancy Marmolejo
You may not have the most beautiful voice, or the loudest, or the most melodic. But you have a voice, and one that a few are attuned to so closely that it is the only one they can hear. Don’t despair if others have more followers or more money or fame or glory – those are things of the world that don’t always bring happiness to their owners. Revel in the joy you have and the joy you bring to others. Weep not that you aren’t the biggest or the best. How many are given that? Know that your life has beauty and purpose and be about your work, honestly and honorably, in gratitude for your gifts that you share with whatever part of the world is yours to touch.
Whenever I watch the Grammy awards, I am in awe at all the unique and special voices, lifted in fantastic songs of personal joys and sorrows, angst and questioning, loves and loneliness. All blend in a chorus of humanity that we all share together on this Earth. I cry for all the souls we lost from the Earth this year, but celebrate all who remain, singing their songs, living their dreams. You, too, are part of this chorus, whatever your range and distances, whatever audience is listening. You are heard. You are needed. You are loved.
Have hope in the night of your solitude, expectant for the light of a new dawning. Awake and sing. If only one voice, if only for one moment, if only for one listener. Know this truth: You are as special, as gifted, as needed as the best and brightest in the land. The spectacle fails without the audience. Without the listener, the singer is lost. Without a song, the world is lost.
Lift up your voice and sing!
