Inspirational Sunday - Being Yourself

"About once a month I run across a person who radiates an inner light. These people can be in any walk of life. They seem deeply good. They listen well. They make you feel funny and valued. You often catch them looking after other people and as they do so their laugh is musical and their manner is infused with gratitude. They are not thinking about what wonderful work they are doing. They are not thinking about themselves at all."

I ran across this quote when reading an opinion column by David Brooks of The New York Times.
 (http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/12/opinion/sunday/david-brooks-the-moral-bucket-list.html?_r=0) I saved it because it just spoke to me.

I meet a lot of people in my life. There are some I meet that I am instantly drawn to. As the quote above states, they are people you are instantly drawn to. They are humble people and are there for others. It isn't that they are doing this just to garner attention or that they are too insipid. Rather, these people are true authentic people.

One of my cousins and I were talking this past week. We both have 'people pleasers' around us. I think they are around everyone. They put this fake face on to the world when inside they are insecure and are afraid to let anyone in to see what a mess they think they are. As you have probably figured out, I am not a people pleaser. I don't know that I ever was. I tried to live that life, thinking it was the proper to 'put a public face on when one was in public' and otherwise behind closed doors, one could be who they wanted as long as that public face shined through.

I do not think God would have wanted us to be like that. I strive to be like the person above. It is hard to do when sometimes all I want to do is shake the other person. But we all have to live our own lives. We can only lead by example and hope that example is like that person above - one who truly believes that money can't buy happiness and truly believes that they can be loved and seen as they strive to live and be and one who doesn't believe they have a public and non-public face. We are not perfect people. We make mistakes and yet we can see them and make changes through our own internal character and with the help of our spiritual belief system.

Just be yourself!