‘the balls to stand naked’ from Nic Askew on Vimeo.

Funny how we can make assumptions about people who have done amazing things. It’s so easy to chalk up their achievements to them being super-human. And equally easy to downplay who we are or could be, in terms of convincing ourselves that it just isn’t in the cards for us to accomplish great things like they have.

What if they are really no different than we are? What if their gifts and talents are just different than ours? What if we begin to see our own gifts for what they truly are…gifts to be given, no better or worse than anyone else’s? And what if we could just open our eyes to the countless ways that we could give those gifts to others?

I love Dominic’s pointing to the fact that all relationships are opportunities to create something, and our responsibility is to act on those opportunities. This is where we can start to catch a glimpse of our own uniqueness – no one else before or after you has the same relationships that you do, and out of your relationships are things that could be born that no one else could ever produce in the same way!

My post about Dave Eggers and 826 Valencia is such a great example of this. He connected his relationship with teachers and their challenges around providing one-on-one time with their students, and his relationship to his local writing community and the gifts they could offer. Out of these relationships of Dave’s, 826 Valencia was born, as well as the other legacy sites that have been modeled after 826!

What story in community is out there waiting to be written and told by YOU?

“It takes a lot of courage to release the familiar and seemingly secure, to embrace the new. But there is no real security in what is no longer meaningful. There is more security in the adventurous and exciting, for in movement there is life, and in change there is power.” ~ Alan Cohen

Writing the first chapter of a story (metaphorically and often literally I suspect!) starts with courage to go into the unknown. Think back to the hardest thing you have done in your life. Hardest in the sense that it required a tremendous amount of courage to undertake. What did it feel like before you committed yourself? What were you telling yourself then? What made the difference to allow you to leap? And reflecting back now, how do you feel about the impact that leap of courage has had in your own life and the lives of others? How did it affect subsequent leaps of courage, either directly or indirectly?

How is your story in community waiting to be written by YOU going to require you to be courageous again? What support will you need to do it?

And finally, showing yourself in the way you really are to others can be a source of power, although at a time of struggle, can just feel like it will just make you more vulnerable. The paradox is that in being more vulnerable with the support of others, we become more powerful!

How naked are you prepared to be as you courageously write the story in community waiting to be told by you?

So, what will YOUR story be like? How will it start? How will it END? We are ALL waiting to hear…don’t let us down. Be courageous. Begin it!

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