Wisdom Day 11
Sometimes the Most Powerful Prayer You Can Offer is to Speak Your Needs
Read about the 100 days of Wisdom™ Project by Tonya Marie
Follow me on Twitter @WisdomWhispers and the hashtag #100daysofwisdom for more reflections on life, love and the wisdom of Spirit!
A hardness we can’t see, cold and rigid, begins to form between us and the world, the longer we stay silent about what we need. It is not even about getting what we need, but about admitting, mostly to ourselves, that we do have needs. . . . Paradoxically, asking even for the things that no one can give, we are relieved and blessed for the asking. For admitting our humanness lets the soul break surface, the way a dolphin leaps for the sun.” ~ Mark Nepo, The Book of Awakening (8/15 entry)
Every day I write. And every day I share my writing in some form or fashion. Sometimes I share because I think or feel something I’ve learned will help others. Other days I share to foster connection and community.
And then there are days like today, when I write as a form of catharsis. Today I write for myself because it is often said you teach what you most need to learn. Selah.
Nepo’s quote above was a divine reminder not only to recognize and accept that I have needs but to give my needs a voice. Making my needs known to others who may be willing and able to meet them is, of course, one lesson. But his more essential point is that I also need to admit to myself what I need without getting caught up in the who, how and when chatter of my ego that leads me to deny that I am in need or to doubt that my needs can actually be met.
But the truth is the one Source — the Creator — has infinite resources (people, places, things) available but we have to be open and willing to receive in unexpected ways that don’t fit neatly in our own plans.
One Source, many resources divinely equipped to make ways out of “no way”.
So many times throughout my life that I’ve talked myself out of making my needs known to others — either fearing they won’t care, won’t be able to meet my needs anyway or that they’ll judge me. There were also times when experience taught me that even when I spoke up to others they were too distracted or caught up in their own pain to recognize my needs or meet them.
And so I fell silent even denying at times that I needed anyone or anything. I’ve also been pretty convincing to others. Outside looking in, it often appeared I had it all together when things were actually unraveling all around me. “If I don’t speak my needs,” I thought, others won’t have the power to disappoint me. Ah, the faulty logic of a 10-year old child (even in an adult body!). What I learned (the hard way) is if I communicate consciously or unconsciously to others that I don’t need help I can’t very well expect them to show up for me in my time of “unexpressed” need.
Now that I am older, wiser and more conscious I choose to see things differently. I choose to give my needs a voice without investing in a 10-point plan or requiring some “guarantee” to ensure my needs are met. I release the outcome to God’s infinite power to provide in divine and sometimes amazingly unexpected ways. And as I look over my life, the truth is my needs have always been met – nothing short of a miracle continuing to unfold in spite of myself. Thank you.
It’s not the promise that someone is the right one or some action is the right way that gives me strength but the process itself of speaking my truth, the truth of what I require and desire to live wholeheartedly. It is the process of humbling and opening up myself that prepares me to actually receive what I need precisely when I need it.
Giving a voice to what I require – even saying the word “help!” — frees me from limiting and debilitating thoughts and misperceptions and reminds me that I am not alone. Thankfully, there is a higher Divine presence who will meet me where I am and deliver me to where I am destined to go. The same divine energy that propels dolphins to break the water’s surface is the loving energy that propels me break past my fears and embrace my whole self, needs and all.
So today I honor my humanness. Today I recognize that I have needs and that all of my heart’s desires will be provided. In fact, they are already provided for in some energetic from, just waiting for me to open my heart and my life to make room to receive.
Be well and WISE!
Tonya Marie
Wisdom in the Whisper™ and WisdomintheWhisper.com by Tonya Marie is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. Based on a work at www.wisdominthewhisper.com.
Wisdom in the Whisper™ 