The Perfect Ingredient

Life is a mystery. Each individual has seemingly countless experiences that have come to fruition making us the exact individual we are at this very moment. The human condition put us on this celestial rock at a precise time in history, in a random location, born into an individual family and regional community. We all experience life and society based on this widely believed randomness, as a part of the whole, a paragraph in the novel of existence. 

Every individual is important and sacred. Our uniqueness as said individuals is the greatest asset we have as a species. More often as I care to admit, I have viewed my individuality and personal experiences, lined with struggles and suffering, as a liability- feeling at points guilt, shame, and embarrassment. What can happen when those beliefs, thoughts, and feelings are shifted in consciousness? The result is a belief that each individual may just, in fact, be a mix of perfect experiences. 

Thomas Edison, the prolific American inventor and businessman, developed hearing problems at an early age. The cause of his deafness has been attributed to a bout of scarlet fever during childhood and recurring untreated middle-ear infections. Early on, Edison sold candy and newspapers on trains running from Port Huron to Detroit and sold vegetables to supplement his income. His first wife died when she was only 29, allegedly of a brain tumor. 

Oprah Winfrey recalls she spent her first six years living in rural poverty with her maternal grandmother when her mother traveled north and was so poor that other children made fun of her for wearing dresses made of potato sacks. She has also shared her experiences with sexual abuse as well as professional struggles like being demoted as a young Baltimore news anchor.

Titans of their individual industries, these two credit much of what they have contributed to cumulative struggles and experiences throughout their lives. Would either have become the prolific individual without going through every exact experience they went through? This very question brings us back to the beginning. 

Perhaps you are feeling down, confused, or even apathetic. Life may just feel “heavy.” I have been there recently myself. Keep trudging forward. You may be at the brink of a personal breakthrough. The culmination of your great, good, bad, and ugly experiences may be the perfect ingredients to produce the wonderful, extraordinary, and amazing. It may not be tomorrow at 8:00am, next week, or even next month, but believe that everything you are- your unique experience and individuality, is going to produce something useful and beautiful. You may be one more failure, rejection, or struggle away from everything coming together-precisely the way it was required to materialize. 

Each one of us inevitably will be in the right place at the right time, in the right mindset, surrounded by the right conditions to produce something beautiful, provided we are “awake” and present in the moment. What will your moment be? That is the mystery. That which is our sacredness as humans. Our new mindset convinces us that everything we’ve been able to experience allowed us to contribute- somehow and some way to the greater good. The uniqueness and hallowedness of being a human in rich communion with life and community. We all may not be titans of industry in a societal context, but each individual has the potential to be that indispensable ingredient in a "next great moment." The greatest philosophers have always referenced, “what in this life that you have, hasn’t been given to you?” In a society that rewards “self-achievement” and an “individual’s success” it may take a moment to digest, but we can all get there.    

Stay uniquely you! Believe in your purpose-even if that purpose may not be clear at this very moment- never stop contributing and sharing your wisdom, support, and love as long as you age. Never give up no matter the depth of your sadness or altitude of attainments. Your mystery is unfolding- the reciprocal gift to the very life that created you.