Shoot for the Moon

Life never ceases to amaze me.  I've been puzzled over some recent turn of events and I am having trouble accepting that maybe I am supposed to learn some lesson from the exchange.  I question this!  Maybe you can help me?

As most of you know I spent the first quarter of my life being insulted, criticized and verbally abused.  And those of you who know me, also know that I have spent all of my adult life uplifting myself into a place of confidence, value and self-esteem.

Shouldn't my rising above my circumstance be proof that I am well-educated in the subject.  My theory is that people are negative or bitter because somewhere along the line they forgot their true worth.  We weren't born into this world to just get by.  We were born to bloom!

The other day someone I have been working with very closely told me this story (this is one of many similar stories), "I met this girl who said she came to L.A. to be a star. And I looked at her and laughed and said, join the club honey."   He went on to say more to the same effect and I was astonished.  What gives any of us the right to shed darkness on someone else's dream?  Just because one person doesn't make it in a given field does not mean that the next person who comes along, as far-fetched to us as it may seem, doesn't become a huge success.

Why can't we all just believe in ourselves and each other?  Why can't we believe that if we shoot for the moon, that worse that can happen is, we land in the stars?  And if we can't believe for whatever limiting beliefs we have inflicted on ourselves, why can't we just shut the f**k up.  Doesn't everyone know the old adage, if you don't have something nice to say then don't say anything at all?

I am an undeniable, unequivocal believer in our potential as people.   It has taken me a long time to believe in myself and my possibilities.

If we weren't meant for greatness and we didn't believe in ourselves, then there would be no Bill Gates of the world, no Mother Teresa's and certainly no one running for President!

Negativity breeds like a cancer.  It is contagious and engaging and scary.  Look at what's happening to me right now... these negative exchanges have left me sleepless, distraught and depleted.  I am reminded of my past and the negativity plays like a broken record.

My mother did teach me some valuable lessons.  One of those lessons was to not listen to what people say to us in anger because they might as well be looking at themselves in the mirror (perhaps her way of telling me not to listen to her? Oh! I just had an aha moment!).  Well, anyway, I think this holds true with negativity.  But the dilemma now is, what do I do about it?  I've tried to express my concern and the response is always, you are up here and I am here and we meet in the middle.  Well I don't feel like we are in the middle.  I feel like I have been brought down to that preverbal gutter of negativity that I have spent my life trying to get out of.  I don't want these to be my thoughts and I certainly don't want to engage in the gloomy game of accusations.

I couldn't wait to write this out today.  My way of brushing myself off and finding my footing again so that I may find myself once again, skipping along the stars like a cobblestone street.

Are you dangling from the moon?  Will you share?