Fully Alive

Life is so precious. We are like a flower that blooms one day and withers away. It may seem like we are insignificant since we all come and go in this life, but it’s quite the opposite. A person fully alive sets the world on fire, whether it be in their beautiful sphere of influence or even the world at large. A person fully alive is someone who is completely themselves. Someone who shines with their God-given gifts. Someone who is not weighed down by things and concerns that only bring their true self down.

How then can we live life fully alive?

We have to be real. We have to be real about what is going on in our lives and where we are going. It’s only in this stopping, taking a break, and listening that we’ll realize if our lives and where we are going is where we want to be.

The beautiful thing is that deep down inside we know the truth. We already know what we need to do, but our personal power has been weakened by other more seemingly important and urgent matters as well as weakened by our own impulses. To take back our power, we have to lift ourselves out of the pile of burdens we put ourselves under. Unless we know how we truly want to live, we’ll continue to live life as if on a running wheel that keeps turning and turning, but never leads to anywhere.

While in this life, we were meant to shine. We are meant to harness that power within and live life with courage and boldness. We are meant to get all the good things out of life which oftentimes means truly learning from our mistakes, quieting our hearts and minds, and following the still small voice guiding us to the true good life.

The Story of the Little Duckling

There was a little duckling born without no wings
But everyone around her also had no wings
She had a sense that they were meant to be airborne
That they were meant to fly

She told the duckling world about the truth she found
They laughed at her and told her to stay on the ground
She doubted what she sensed cause no one else believed
But still the truth inside her heart just would not leave

I believe
I was born
To fly

I believe
I was made
For more

I believe
In what I cannot see
I believe with my heart

I believe
I was born
To fly

She set out to strengthen her little feeble arms
They look at her like she had gone too far to save
They pity all the work that she was going through
They wrote her off as a poor little foolish bird

She felt the pain of others looking on with doubt
The doubt in her heart never seized to go away
But this belief was just too good to miss out on
So she kept on flapping as they kept on laughing on

You know how the story ends
She proves them wrong
The little duckling does indeed go flying
And she spent her time teaching others to fly*

*This story is the lyrics to my song “Meant to Fly.” Click here if you’d like to listen to the song.

The Answer to All Our Problems: Individuals pursuing their life’s work

I am convinced that pursuing your life’s work will make the world a better place. First off, think of why there is so much pain and suffering in the world. It’s because of people wreaking havoc on the world (from global, to local, down to the family system) instead of creating their truth in the world. I feel we haven’t had direction in terms of our spirit until just recently. Or rather, until just recently, our spirit really needed direction. Our world has insanely evolved and we don’t know what to do with it. We’re like babies living in an advanced world. This is where the revolution begins…people begin to create the good in the world they were meant to create.

From Surviving to Thriving

We’ve gone through the stages of barely surviving in caves, to slaving away in farms, to slaving away in offices, now it’s time for the next level…thriving. Life in general down to the individual is made to evolve to higher and higher levels. That higher level is moving the masses to see how important they are and build them up where they stop messing around and listen to their inner calling.

Specific Outline to Find and Pursue Your Inner Calling

• Address baggage that continually brings you problems. Get help from a professional, from loved ones, from church, from a book, or journal, pray, meditate. This is the time to stop ignoring the problems you know you have (we all have problems). Address this fully, do it right the first time; however, don’t get stuck addressing problems once you’re no longer going anywhere and it’s time for the next step.
• Focus on creating what you want in your life. The past is over with and you’re learning how to live it. Now it’s time to focus on the present and future. How would you like your life to be now? Do what it takes to see that way of living be reality in your life.
• Spend time in silence to discover your life’s work. What are your interests, what are you drawn to, where does your mind go drifting? Listen to the sense you feel regarding about what you’re meant to do.
• Map out how to bring your life’s work into the world. For short-term work, it’ll be easier to write out your plan. For long-term work, break it up into manageable parts and then take things one day at a time.
• Most important, resist the temptation to give up and resist the voice that tells you you can’t. You are important. And as one of my favorite author and artist Steven Pressfield writes, “Don’t cheat us of your contribution. Give us what you’ve got.”

Take A Deep Breath

In a new world
I found myself
How will I survive

Monsters in my head
Fight for reality
How to make the truth win

Take a deep breath and feel my heart beat
Take a deep breath and see my hands and feet
Take a deep breath and see that I’m okay
Take a deep breath and know I’ll make it

I go to what I know
Singing from my heart
No matter what life brings

Shields me from the cold
Warms me in my soul
To sing from deep within

I’ll make it, I’ll make it
I’ll make it, I’ll make it

“I’ll Make It” by Jamie Pennelly

The Truth

To be honest, I am a millennial, but I didn’t know that until just several weeks ago when I noticed a tweet by Marie Forleo for Jackie’s Pearce’s post “Making Fun of Millennials is SO 2012”. Just a couple weeks after that, I got an email from Jonathan Fields, since I’m on his mailing list, for his Revolution U webinar. I joined the webinar and learned about revolutions. And then now looking back at all this, a year and a half ago I had the idea to start a revolution called Live and Love Again and then did a homemade music album with songs I wrote that went along with that theme. Fast forward to now, I restarted this blog, realized I wrote a bunch of songs to help me along this journey of living life a different way, and now I’m trying to use social media to get my work out there.

So you’ve never heard of the term “millennial”?

Nope. Until just several weeks ago, I wasn’t really into social media. I was debating deactivating my Facebook about. I actually did, but then started it up again. I was going to sell my laptop because I hardly used the internet and I was done with school, so I no longer had a need for a computer to write papers. I ended up not doing it. I was going to get rid of my phone. I hardly used it. Ending up not getting rid of it and then ended up getting an iPhone only because my husband really wanted me to have one to stay connected. I don’t watch television, hardly read news, and purposely tried to cut myself off from anything of our culture.

The Desire To Be Genuine

I’m writing this because I haven’t been feeling genuine doing what I have been doing the past several days. Tweeting, facebooking, blogging, etc. I was feeling kind of off and I just realized all of this today. I actually was going to try to sign off from everything again, but I realized that’s probably not the solution.

Then the idea came to me, the solution is to be honest. Honesty, no matter how hard it’s been for me, has always brought peace and feeling grounded back into my life. The main point of my work is to be real and I felt I was pretending to be part of this culture. I’m really not.

Starting Again

However, I can start again and go about all of this in the only way I know…by just telling the truth in the way I know how. I don’t know much about hashtags, twitter, social media, the lingo, etc. But I do know that I want to make a difference. I want to help make a difference for people around my age from around early to late twenties. For people who just don’t feel like working up the corporate ladder nor working to just save up for retirement. For people who want to live lives that have meaning and purpose.

How I Want To Make A Difference

I just want to be myself. I want to sing these inspirational songs I’ve written that I feel have the power to empower people to own their lives and create something amazing out of it. I want to write my thoughts about how people have been living life and how I want it to change for the better for everyone. And I do want to share what I write and sing, so I want to share it in places where people can learn about what I’m doing. Last but not least, I do know I don’t want to pretend like I’m someone I’m not. I think I can feel better moving forward now.