Blessed & Highly Favored

The temperature must have been in the mid-90’s the day I drove past Daphne returning from her daily walk to Publix. I rolled down my window to offer her a ride and say hello.

I yelled “How are you doing today Velma?” I blame Scooby Doo. Thank God her hearing was not what it used to be. She answered anyway, with a giant beautiful smile across her face: “Blessed and Highly Favored my friend…blessed and highly favored!” 

Daphne must be in her seventies. She walks more than anyone else in our neighborhood, myself included.

She always dresses in beautifully printed, long, flowy dresses for her walks. There’s more salt than pepper in her hair, and it’s perfectly combed back in a bun. She walks with an umbrella tucked under her arm because, well, this is South Florida and you just never know when the rain might come.

I’ve had the pleasure of running into Daphne on my walks and have been blessed by some great conversations with her. We’ve talked about our families, our ancestors, our faith, and the stupidity of racism.

Her joke with me is that she’s dark skinned, but from the islands. She’s of German and Swedish decent so her skin tone is where any connections to Africa stops. Compare that to myself: fair skinned on the outside, curly dark (and gray) hair… and I am a proud descendant of African slaves. You can’t -- and more importantly shouldn’t -- judge a book by its cover.

All that aside, what I loved about Daphne’s answer regarding highly-favored blessedness is that I know that she is indeed blessed and highly favored. I feel the same way about my own life. Right then and there, I wanted to adopt it as my answer to that constant, rote question: “How are you?”

My typical go-to is, ‘Great.’ In the past, that wasn’t always true. Now my answer is, ‘Living the Dream’ which I love and happens to be true. But… wow… ‘blessed and highly favored’ makes everything else sound so small! 

The truth is, this should be the answer we’re all giving to that question. If we’re not, perhaps we’re not paying attention or being grateful enough. Perhaps we’ve become so focused on the negative that we don’t notice all the wonderful that’s happening to us, for us and around us. If you wake up, turn on the news, and leave that channel playing all day, you’re not going to see the good. I promise you however, it’s there.

So just for the hell of it, I looked it up. The definition of favor is “demonstrated delight.” To have God’s favor means that He is delighted with an individual and has shown gracious kindness towards them. Makes perfect sense in Daphne’s case, makes perfect sense in my own, and makes perfect sense for you too.

Based on that definition, would you still argue with me that you’re not favored? I encourage you to look for it; you’ll find it. Look for the good, look for the helpers, as Mr. Rogers’ mother would say. Think about it? What are you putting out there, what are you projecting? What’s going on your green screen –we get to decide what’s on it, so what are you projecting onto it? FOCUS on the good and the good will reveal itself and you’ll find that it’s more abundant that you's previously imagined.

Are you keeping a gratitude journal? No? Well guess what, today’s a great day to start. 

Are you watching the bullshit news? Yes? Well guess what, today’s a great day to stop.

The news is full of stories of what I call hippo-fish. If we allow ourselves, we will eventually start believing the narrative that, just when you think this world couldn’t get any worse, it does. Well, that’s not the case. It just isn’t. The problem is that good doesn’t sell like negative does and greed is greed. But the truly good will always outweigh the bad. 

“There are two ways to live your life - one is as though nothing is a miracle, the other is as though everything is a miracle.” - Albert Einstein

The choice is yours. I encourage you to start leveling up how you answer that simple question ‘How are you?’

Vibrationally, it’s going to raise the stakes for you. If you focus on the good, walk in the truth that you are indeed blessed and highly favored, the good life will show up for you… I promise. Don’t wait to see it so that you believe it, instead start believing it and you’ll see it. Before you know it, you too will find that you are indeed blessed and highly favored.

Berta Medina-Garcia is a Professional Certified Success and Adventure Coach, Keynote Speaker and Eternal Optimist. She works with organizations who want to achieve their goals by adopting actionable strategies of accountability. www.bertamedina.com ? 305.562.2085 ? [email protected]