The Gift of Life

I recently attended a fundraiser and met a Marine who had served in Vietnam.  He started talking about his tour of duty and told me that while he and several of his friends had just dug into a foxhole, he volunteered to go get some water.  He got 20 meters from the foxhole when the foxhole was hit by enemy fire and exploded.  He watched his friends, who he had just been talking to moments before, die in front of his eyes.  

This Marine retired from service with a Purple Heart and another medal for sustained acts of heroism or meritorious service.  He then said to me, "For so many years I asked myself, why did they die and I lived?"

My answer was this, "no one knows how they will affect the lives of others in our lifetime."  He smiled and told me that after Vietnam he served and retired from the police force.  He said, "one day I was called to a domestic dispute and the husband was going to kill his wife so I had to kill the husband.  Several years later that same wife sent me a small trophy and a note saying thank you for saving my life.  If you had not been there that night, I would surely be dead and I wanted to send you this trophy as my way of telling you how much I appreciate you saving my life."

Unfortunately, there are so many survivors of war, childhood traumas, natural disasters and violence that find it difficult to move forward because they can't move past their feelings of survivor's remorse.

What if the question isn't, "why did I survive" and the question is actually, "what am I doing with my gift of life?"

The adult who has not moved past childhood traumas, survivors of life threatening illnesses, the soldier who can't let go of what he or she has witnessed, the person who has suffered a violent act to their person or someone they love may ask the question, "why me?"  But these questions and others like them only allow them to create more resistance to what they are trying to put behind them.  Their questions are merely a distraction which is causing them not to address the real issue.

Why do we torment ourselves with the thought of, "I don't deserve....?" 

Every person on this planet is a gift but not every person realizes the gift that they are.  When you fully realize each and every person is unique and there are no two people who share the exact same gifts, you begin to understand the value that you add to the lives of others.

Whether you are an artist, teacher, policeman, fireman, paramedic, doctor, lawyer, gardner, construction worker, painter, singer, actor; (the list is endless) there is no other person quite like you.  The realtor who brings joy and happiness into the lives of the people he sells a home to cannot bring joy and happiness into his client's lives without the gifts of the construction workers, plumbers, electricians and landscapers that created the house.  No person is more important than the next and yet each person brings value to the lives of others. 

We are all here as part of one big energy source.  When each of us embraces the value of who we are and the gift that we are, we are adding our gift to the collective energy source.

What are you doing to be Loud & Proud about the gift that you are and the value you bring to the lives of others?  There are too many people who think that living a life of EGO means they are being boastful or bragging.  When you understand that EGO stands for Edges Gifts Out you begin to understand that living an ego based life keeps you from being the gift that you are and 

---