paul's post week of March 26, 2007

Hello friends & loved ones,

Better late than never or so they say. It's the beginning of another week and it was in the mid 70's today. This is definitely the beginning of shorts weather. I like shorts and have no qualms about showing off my hairy legs. And boy are they hairy.

I've been thinking a lot about gifts; gifts that we are blessed with. Some people spend their entire lives trying to figure out what they are good at. They don't need to; all they have to do is look inside themselves, experiment, tweak, and have some confidence. Let's face it without confidence a gift can't shine through. I had the pleasure of singing special music at church on Sunday and with each song I sing solo, I try to stretch myself. I try to go further and the song I did was right near the top of my range in some spots and I was a little nervous but I practiced and practiced and tweaked and changed it up to fit my voice and went out there with guns (or I should say vocal chords) blazing. Everyone is good at at least one thing. If you stop and examine your life and examine yourself you will find that one thing and maybe even more. It's something we're born with but we have to continue to sharpen it and play with it to keep showing it off. It's like a foreign language; if you don't use it you may lose it. In my case I lost my Spanish a long time ago (even after 6 years of it) but, thankfully, I have other things I'm decent at. I also know what I'm not so good at. I'd make a terrible sexton for my church because instead of going through the checklist of things that need to be done I would be chatting with other people, catching up with them, finding out what's going on in their lives and neglecting what I was supposed to be doing.

So find out what you are good at this week when you are out and about or enjoying the sun. Really examine yourself, find out what you like to do and what you know you can do. Surprise yourself. Experiment, tweak yourself, make yourself shine.

Until next week: Stay safe, stay happy, and stay healthy.

peace,

paul