Own Your Power
You are powerful.
It doesn’t matter how developed or diminished your muscles might be.
It isn’t because you do, or don’t have mounds of money in the bank.
It doesn’t have anything to do with who you know, what you do, or how what letters you have before or after your name.
By the fact that you are alive you are powerful. By the fact that your heart beats you are powerful. By the fact that you are cognizant, aware and reading this you are powerful. And by fact that you have survived – survived the journey from sperm to egg to embryo to fetus to newborn to child, teen and adult, with each and every step of the way being challenged, tested, beaten up, broken down and yet you persevered – you are powerful beyond belief.
But, if you don’t believe your life is a miracle and has meaning, you are powerless.
If you don’t believe in your gifts and your abilities you are powerless.
If you don’t believe that you are a survivor, able to stand up, in this moment, and continue to endur whatever crossroads you are facing, no matter how difficult or painful it might seem, finding your way forward then you are powerless. In the words of the famous poem, Invictus,
I am the master of my fate;
I am the captain of my soul.
If you don’t believe you are the master of your fate, the captain of your soul, then no matter who you are, what you do or where you go – you are powerless and being powerless is no way to live and not why we are here. And so many of us live this way.
A while back I counseled a man who by every outward appearance was an overwhelming success. He was in his forties, handsome and in tip-top shape. He was a high powered attorney. He had a wonderful wife, beautiful children and a community that revered him. And yet, he hated his profession, felt lonely within his marriage and could not find meaning, joy or purpose within his life, even from his wonderful kids. He turned to alcohol, to online pornography and to spending all day Sunday lying on the couch watching football to numb his pain. He was powerless because didn’t believe he had the ability to confront what was broken within him and his life and ultimately chose not to.
Compare that to a woman in her eighties whom I guided who had lost seemingly everything, her husband, her daughter, and so many friends along the way. Of course she battled the darkness of despair whenever it descended, but she found meaning in her struggle, she found joy in her relationships, she truly believed that “every day above ground was a good day,” as she said over and over. She exuded power, whereas this seemingly powerful man had none.
In the end, we can never control our external circumstances. We can not determine what happens outside of us, or even to us. The only thing we have the power to control is our response to it all, what happens inside of us and how we choose to respond. To be powerless is believe we have no way forward or to forfeit this ability to choose how to respond to the world, whatever it brings our way. To be powerful simply comes down to a choice – do we choose to see the blessings and beauty all (and always) around us? Do we choose to to address what happens around us? Do we choose to take responsibility for what is unfolding within us. Do we choose to become the master of our own fate and the captain of our own soul.
Rabbi B