Finding Meaning

Sometimes we work so hard at something, trying and trying with little or no result, that we get frustrated and fall out of love with our dream.  This can leave us feeling empty and alone.  It can even result in us being angry with the products of our labors. We find that we want little to do with it, whatever it is.  And then, the end result is that no one else does either and the whole endeavor becomes a flop.  We see it as a failure and it becomes just that.  But really what we need to do is to love what we've done, whatever it is that we have worked toward, we just need to love it.

A woman that I know opened up a shop here in town several years ago.  It was a fine little store and she carried and sold just the sort of things that I'd like to buy.  So I stopped in periodically.  One day, while I was there, I could see clearly that she was discouraged.  She said that very few customers had been in all week and she was feeling, 'Ah, what's the use?'  

We spoke for a while and I mentioned how beautiful and useful her wares were.  She knew that already.  So, I said, "Visualize people coming in and being thrilled to find what they'd like."  She was so discouraged that day that she still wasn't much moved.  So, I asked my heart to help and it had me say, "You've got to love what you do.  Love it; fall back in love with what you have created."  She paused and looked at me and thought about it and we parted company with some hugs and smiles.  

Deep discouragement can also happen with a difficult birth.  All of that time in pregnancy, hoping and eager for the new.  Then the devastating labor leaves it's scars and the pain is hard to forget.  It can take some time and possibly even an outside influence to remind us of what we have loved and can love again.

I popped back in to that shop a month or two later and my friend said, "You know, I listened to what you said.  I imagined people coming in and loving what I offer.  I remembered why I was inspired to create this shop and I practiced those thoughts until I fell back in love with my store again.  And now, as you can see, customers are flooding in and I've become so busy I had to hire some help.  Isn't that a miracle?  I let myself find love again, with my work and my life, and through that I have found meaning"

May you fall in love again with your life despite the troubles and all the hard work.  Because as we find love for what we do, we find meaning and then so does the rest of the world too.

© Josephine Laing 2016