Noticing the Unique in People Creates a Life Full of Wonder
Being a practitioner means constantly noticing and paying attention to the uniqueness of other people. It means finding out how their own uniqueness is a gift for them and as a result for the world around them, if they only knew how to best utilize it.
Four things that make us unique:
1. Our personality and soul
It is our personality and soul that we were born with, that made us different than other children from the very beginning. It doesn’t take much time for the parents and family of a child to start to notice the character their child was born with, and at the same time, how that very same character can change the way they live their own life.
What kind of child were you? Would you say that you can still find that child somewhere within you today? Maybe not the same child the family tells stories about, but the child you knew, in your own particular way. Do you recognize the soul of that child in the life you live today?
2. Being shaped by our surroundings
The environment we were born into and the surroundings we grew up in until this current moment in our life shape us. If the exact same person was born to a different family, would they still have turned out to be the same person? And if they were born in another country, how differently would it shape who they are today? None of us like it when people generalize us as part of a group – “those Americans”, “those rich people”, “those intellectuals” etc. But if generalization is not being used in a derogatory way – to put people down or to disrespect them, we can find that some of what makes us be who we are today, is also about where we came from. Were we part of a family who had to deal with great crisis, or were we busy with enjoying our home and garden? Did we grow up in a place where we felt secure or in one that taught us to be cautious and suspicious?
Learning how to embrace where we came from encourages us to notice that we would not be the same people if we had come from a different background. What did you learn and become, because of the environment you were born into, and the one you live in right now? What are the gifts you received from it?
3. The things that happen to us
Our life follows a path filled with stories – some that we relate to as positive, some that we would prefer not to ever have happened. What happened to us? What happened in our life? What happened around us and how did it influence us? As our past has already happened, we can only look at it and wonder – what did I become as a result of my own unique story? It is about us understanding in the depths of our soul, that the way our character was developed had a lot to do with our own path of life and the experiences we went through.
Think of a meaningful event from your life (positive or negative) and notice what aspects of it created your way of being today? What did you learn about yourself through that experience?
4. Our passion and our spirit
Different people love different things. Our passion, our values, our heart and our desires are what make us singularly different to everybody else. Missions in life are unique and involve a great deal of love for what the person wishes to accomplish. When we look at what people are willing to go through for what they love, we can only be amazed at the strength of the human spirit. Each of us loves something, yet what we love and how it is being express and executed in our reality is unique, fascinating and full of wonder.
What do you love? Who do you love? How is this love being expressed through you and manifesting in your life?
Being a practitioner is to notice what is unique about others and to love it – their character, their background, their own life story and their loves and passions. It is to allow this uniqueness to flourish, in a way that will contribute to their life and the lives of others. It is a privileged work that requires us to constantly pay attention to the different gifts people carry in them, and to find the space for them to be expressed.