Wednesday 14 December 2011

Are You Special?

This morning I checked my email inbox as I do every day, and I was greeted by a few status quo emails. But there was one email amongst the lot that was not status quo; it stood out above the rest.  This email was directed to me, I mean REALLY directed to me. I felt a real sense of love as I began to read the words of this one particular email. The email was from the blood donation centre, and they were wishing me a happy birthday. But this was not your ordinary birthday wish. The basic message of the email was this: ‘Even though you get to feel special one day of the year on your birthday, to us and these people whose lives you save, you are special every day.’

For some reason this email really struck a chord with me. So much so that I have been pondering over what it really means for a person to be special ever since. In my pondering a simple truth has begun to repeat in my heart, a truth that often escapes us in the pursuits of daily life. The truth is this: each and every one of us is special, every single second, of every single minute, of every single day of our lives.

The most important question though is do you really believe it? Normally we only feel special when something outside of us triggers us to feel that way. An example being the way I felt after reading that email this morning. But the reality is that our specialness is always there within us, it never vanishes away or ceases to be a reality. It is an innate part of our essence, and forms who we really are. We are each children of the Divine. And as such each of us possess the attributes of Divinity waiting to be brought into full blossom.

Why then do we not always feel special in our day to day lives? Is it because we are not as good looking as our best friend? Or is it because our neighbour gets more attention than us because of their million dollar house? Perhaps it is because we don’t get as many people post on our facebook wall as other people we know? Could it just be that our job isn’t special so we are not special? There are many such examples, but you get the picture.

And so it is that most of us associate being special with having something outside of us. In order to feel special we need to be told from an external person. Or it is some other external source in the form of a quote or a book that fires up the feelings of specialness within. But is this really where our specialness exists? Does our being special reside in a book? Does it exist in facebook? Can it be found in having blonde hair? Or a fast car?

The answer is no, it cannot be found in anything external to you. The reality is that we are always special. Where then does this specialness reside? Where can one find it? The answer is within your true self. Now there is a difference between your true self, and your fake self. Each of us has a fake self. The fake self is formed by others opinions and beliefs. It is formed by our own judgements of ourselves as we go throughout life. Our fake self creates the mask which blocks the true self.

Within the true self is our innate specialness. It is always there, and is never not there. The only time most of us see or feel this specialness is when something external causes us to remove the mask for a time. But the reality is we have the ability to remove the mask ourselves, any time we choose. The moment we stop comparing ourselves to others, looking outside ourselves for self-worth, judging ourselves etc., is the moment we remove the mask. The mask is merely an illusion, a mask we all have to varying degrees.

So when will you choose to take off your mask? When will you step outside the shadow of your fake self and into your true self, who you really are? Are you ready to stop accepting what other people say of you and start accepting your true special nature? Special is who you are, who I am, and who the all are. As it is for one, so it is for all.

All the answers to life are within you this very moment. You are the very thing you’ve been looking for. You are the most special person in existence. As the old proverb goes, “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.” Right now my heart is telling me that I am special, and that you are just as special. Glorious be the day when we can accept this every single second, of every single minute, of every single day of our lives.