A friend of mine shared something with me the other day. It was about her favorite tee shirt. She conspiringly leaned across the table and whispered, “ I have this favorite tee shirt that I paid like — thirty bucks for,” she looks around the room. “It was waaaay too much – but I HAD to have it…it’s black…wife beater type, ya’ know? Nothin’ to it…but I LOVE it! And it says…” she leans in closer….
“I FEEL A SIN COMIN’ ON.”
I crack up.
“No!’ she exclaims, her face super serious. “My kids are mortified when I wear it….and I seem to only want to wear it on Sundays!’ She leans back, wide-eyed, expectant. “I’m not kidding! SUNDAYS!”
I’m dying (of laughter).
The wide-eyed-serious-can-you-believe-I-do-that-to-my-kids look on her face makes me want to laugh even harder.
I get it. It’s fabulous. I know it’s not about THE SIN (although her kids obviously don’t) but about what it represents. It’s deeper than that…more real, if you will, than some chumped-up judgment about right or wrong. It’s BIG. And it hits us all (whether we want to admit it, or not) .
So, I’m thinking about that shirt today cuz, by golly – if I had it, I’d be wearin’ it!
It’s the first near perfect (weather wise) day we have had in this long, cold winter….I am dying to be outside… it’s all I can do to stay focused AND conscious AND oh-so-aware of everything I am doing…. It’s all I can do to not bag work for the sun and the warm air in my face or to go order a hamburger AND a margarita (or two) at some outdoor café on a Friday afternoon, no less. It’s all I can do to stay in the chair and do the work my muse is screaming to do… and, really, all I want to do is kill her and run out the door.
So, yeah. If I had it, I’d be wearin’ that shirt today.
For the record, SIN (in its original Greek translation) means ‘to miss the mark.’ Yep. That’s it. Not quite the do or die version claimed for centuries, but purely to go astray…(and just so we’re clear here, the translation of ‘repent’ is actually ‘to return.’ Not so scary, huh?)
Yet, it’s still something to watch out for…and that’s the danger. I’m likely to ‘miss the mark’ if I pay attention to this scream inside of me….after all, I’m doing some of the best work of my life…and it’s flowing so beautifully!
But that’s how this stuff works. Just when you are about to make strides….just when you are about to finish that project, get that promotion or launch that product….just when you are about to settle into your marriage, give up your addiction, or commit to counseling…here comes the sabotage. (self-sabotage actually – but what’s worse that messin’ up your own gig?)
It’s powerful – this sabotage thing. So powerful, in fact, that people keep renaming it…Jung calls it ’the ego;’ Tolle ‘the pain body;’ Debbie Ford ‘the shadow:’ King James ‘the devil…’ Point is, whatever name you give it the result is still the same.
You are sooo getting’ messin’ with your greatness. (Afterall, who are YOU to be great?)
So, today. I’m not going to play the sabotage game. I’m not going to let resistance, the shadow, the ego or any other part of me dance in the dark. Nope. Today I am going to let my light shine brighter and brighter. I’m gonna kick ‘the devil’ in the butt and keep on keepin’ on.
Today I am going to let my muse win…to not kill her, maim her or thwart her efforts toward creativity…today I am going to stand firmly planted in the world that I have come to love and in the life that feeds my soul. Today, I am going to continue to move purposefully toward my purpose.
And I’m going to make sure that I use up everything I’ve got in the pursuit of good…and then (and only then) will I go get that burger….and maybe, just maybe…I’ll buy that shirt too.
Unthink this: Are you allowing yourself to be great or do you continually sabotage the happiness in your life How do you sabotage your own success?