Meant to Live

The other day I had lunch with a good friend, who has been in my life for over twenty years.  We began as teaching colleagues back in our Los Angeles Unified days, but it has been in the retirement years that we have dared to go “beneath the surface” into a deeper friendship. 

As a matter of fact, it was this special lady who inspired me to try my hand at writing poetry.  My friend is an accomplished poet – has been for many years, but it wasn’t until fairly recently that she chose to share her work with me.  Her poems not only touch me, but also have shown me a freedom in putting my “stories” into poetic form.

Over lunch, we discussed how hard it has been to share our work.  Every time I publish a poem, either on this blog or as an email to friends, I think twice before I hit the send button.   I lay myself open and vulnerable, with doubts as to the worth of the words I have written.  But my insightful friend countered with this piece of wisdom:  “Carol, poetry can’t live it isn’t shared; it dies if it is not heard.”

My friend’s advice struck me and has been haunting me ever since.  We all have gifts!  Why is it so difficult to truly claim them with enough confidence that we dare to share them?  Perhaps our egos get in the way, insecurity, and the “committee in our head” shouting reasons why OUR gifts aren’t good enough!   The list is endless!  But if we have been given gifts from God, doesn’t it seem reasonable He means for them to be shared?

Perhaps it isn’t just poems that can’t live if they aren’t offered to others, maybe that goes for each of our gifts as well?  There’s a reason for the phrases “God given talent” and “God given gift” – they are FROM GOD and are meant to live!

So, how about you?   Are you allowing your gifts to live?