The Defining Moment

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to heaven, we were all going direct the other way - in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.

 - Charles Dickens A TALE OF TWO CITIES.

 I have some questions for you:

How do you define you?

What is the definition of you?

Who or what do you let define you?

Are you defined by your past ... your mother ... your mate? Or maybe by your friends or your career or job?

Perhaps you are like Sydney Carton in A TALE OF TWO CITIES; the lazy, alcoholic attorney who can't muster any interest in his own life until his unrequited love for Lucie Manette inspires him to become a selfless martyr where, at the end of the novel, he disguises himself as a wanted man (her fiance) and takes the rap for him, paying the ultimate price with death by guillotine; thus enabling the happiness of his beloved Lucie and ensuring his own redemptive immortality and resurrected life meaning? 

ie. Are you living a life of sacrifice?

Maybe you have defined yourself by some or many of these things before: your profession, others opinions, your hopes and dreams?

I have:

There have been times in my life where I have put myself second unnecessarily and too often. I have allowed my talents, abilities, profession, marital status, checkbook status, or social status define me.

Maybe not verbally, but, worse, internally.

But no more!!! 

And I want you to join me!  So I repeat the question: 

How do you define you?

First off, let's define definition -

It is an act of; the formal proclamation of one's being, a statement expressing the essential nature of something, the action or process of stating the meaning of a word or word group or one's life, the action or the power of describing, explaining, or making clear; or a clarity of the visual presentation, outline or detail

Poet and civil rights advocate, Audre Lorde said, 

If I didn't define myself for myself, I would be crunched into other people's fantasies for me and eaten alive.

She has been quoted self-defining herself as a black, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet. So, she defines herself by her race, sexuality, procreation, engagement in activism and equality, profession and art - what she does, her actions.

Ms. Lorde defines herself by what Thomas Jefferson said:

Do you want to know who you are?
Don't ask. Act!
Action will delineate and define you.

So, what actions are you taking? What thoughts are you thinking or will think? Is tomorrow just going to be another day, Scarlett?

Another day where lack overrides prosperity?

Fear overrides love?

Or will faith override fear?

Truth override fact?

We all have volition. We get to choose what and which emotions, states of mind, and opinions we're going to have. We get to decide which emotional triggers are allowed to invade our lives and which ones will fade and vanish from our lives, and what or which reactions we are going to have to fact number x, y or z.

We get to choose!

Second definition is the ostensive definition:

A definition accomplished by exhibiting and characterizing
 the thing to be defined.

If everyone was blind, how would you be described? 

-Brianna West, Thought Catalogue

In a moment, I want you to close your eyes and...

Feel your face … 

... the texture, the lines - is it a frown or smile?

Stressed or joyous?

Listen to (not just hear) your voice. ...

... your tone - is it stressed or joyous?

Feel your energy ...

... surrounded by happy, sad, content, 

stressed, at ease, at peace?

Try it!

Do you sense a big fat wall or lie going on?

What energy do you give off?

Does the room clear when you enter it

or are people attracted to the energy you exude?

Brianna went on to say:

You are not your hair color. You are not your choice of clothing. You’re not your height, weight or job or degree of education. More importantly, you’re not your mistakes. You’re not defined by the things that make you human, otherwise known to some as “flaws.” The physical are just descriptors that make you easier to identify by others (short tall young old brown hair dyed hair no hair), they don’t define who you are.

And this is my favorite part:

You are whatever touches your soul more deeply than anything. You are who you love. You are the music that makes you cry. You are the daydreams your mind trails off to. You are your favorite food. You are your deepest desires. You are what you want to bring to the world. You are the silly jokes that make you laugh. You are how you treat other people, especially people who don’t and can’t do anything for you in return. You are anything and everything that touches you and changes you from your core.

Our third definition is the contextual definition

A definition in which the meaning of a word, expression, or symbol is partly or wholly determined by defining the meaning of a larger expression containing the definiendum.

So, let's put this into context … the larger expression of you and I is commonly referred to as God!

Ernest Holmes calls God:

The Power that creates everything, that gives life to everything.

So in a contextual definition of you and me, we are creators
 … we are artists.

Edgar Allan Poe said:

It is almost something that can't be put into words. Were I called on to define, very briefly, the term Art, I should call it 'the reproduction of what the Senses perceive in Nature through the veil of the soul.'

You see, you and I are the ultimate Artists of our lives. What we perceive we can achieve. Our thoughts become things. Our beliefs flavor every experience we have, whether we call them good, bad, positive, negative, wanted or not wanted.

What do you believe?

The fourth is about our depth of focus

It is the range of distances of the image measured along the axis of the device throughout which the image has acceptable sharpness.
You can say that it is the range of distance where our focus on our perfection is sharp. That is a mental and optical reference.
The human eye can change focus from distance infinity to 7 cm from the eye in 350 milliseconds. Milliseconds! Well, we also have that same capacity, mentally, to change our focus, as well.

I define myself by everything that I love, everything I can create, everything that I can imagine. 

- Stedman Graham

What are you focusing on?

It's time to learn to turn off the noise; the chaos of the city, of work, and of life. Put down the paper, close People Magazine, turn off the news and look into the eyes of your pet, your child, your lover, your friend.
It is there you will see, feel, reveal that which defines you.

Dr. Holmes in This Thing Called You says:

Not a person lives does not at some time in life sense this inward Presence, this vision of the Divine which presses against us. It is seeking entrance through our thoughts.

We must open the door of our consciousness

and permit It to enter.

Our fifth definition is the connotative definition

It is a statement of the equivalence of connotation between the defined term and another expression.

It is our thoughts:  

        what we think about our selves 
or what we accept about what others might say

Dr. Holmes wrote:

Thoughts often repeated form patterns in mind which automatically repeat themselves.

So, what is going on in your self talk?

"I can't do nothing."

"I can do anything."

"I am a failure."

                                                       or

"I express limitless possibilities

because there are limitless possibilities

and I am of the ultimate Artist, the ultimate Creator,

thus I am the Artist,

I am the Creator of my experiences."

In Don Miguel Ruiz's THE FOUR AGREEMENT, the second and third agreements are:  

Don't take anything personally and don't make assumptions.

Don't take anything personally about what others say about you, think about you, write about you, or you have even done yourself.Don't like how you handled something or said something? Yeah, take responsibility....but suffer, beat yourself up for it?

Forget it!

Repair the damage and don't ever do it again.

Love Only - Forgive Everything

Remember Who You Are!

Don't assume! Find out! 

Don't poison your mind with supposed facts, including the news, find out ... ask ... get the truth with a little t and know the Truth with the big T.

Give up defining yourself - to yourself or to others. You won't die. You will come to life. And don't be concerned with how others define you. When they define you, they are limiting themselves, so it's their problem. Whenever you interact with people, don't be there primarily as a function or a role, but as the field of conscious Presence. You can only lose something that you have, but you cannot lose something that you are.

                            ― Eckhart Tolle

          A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose

The sixth and final definition is the genetic definition
which indicates how that to which a word or expression refers, comes into existence.

You don't have to achieve it  - a life of meaning, a life of definition, or a defining moment - like Sydney Carton in A Tale of Two Cities did or the way so famously made by Jesus of Nazareth – by sacrificing your life. You can have it now by sacrificing the old you that no longer serves your greatest good, that you used or maybe abused to define you before and live like the Artist that you are, like the Creator that you are.

You see, you are unique!

There were 200-300 million sperm in competition to fertilize the one egg that was available in one of the two fallopian tubes in your mother to start the process of reproduction and the making of your body - this vehicle that is temporarily holding the real you, the definition of You. 

200-300 million!

And that sperm not only fought for its place in the cue, it traveled the equivalent to its size, a distance of 40 miles to reach its destination.

Forty miles!

That is some power. That is some kind of uniqueness that you and I are.

It is the same Power that makes the planets, grows the trees, whips up the wind, works the 100 trillion cells that makes up your body. Now the saying that you rejuvenate your entire cell system every 7 - 10 years is a misnomer. But many or our cells are constantly regenerating themselves – much of your body is younger than the number of candles on your birthday cake. 

This is power and this Power is in you,

works through you,

acts as you ... 

is YOU.

Take it, grasp it, absorb it...

BE IT.

Creation's gold mine is in you. The key is deliberate intention. Whatever your dream may be at this moment, identify it. If you cannot define your desire, it can never become a reality. 

- Mary Manin Morrissey

They say don't sweat the big stuff...

and people ask how, how do I do that?

Well, by concentrating on ... 

living in and being of the little stuff … 

the basic stuff … 

which is the True big stuff.

Allow me to, as Jarvis Lorry did for Dr. Manette in the beginning of A TALE OF TWO CITIES, give you this message:

Recalled to Life.

I am recalling you to a life deserved, a life birthed to, a life au natural (with or without clothing); a life imbued with, soaking in, surrounded by, created from, living as, and Being One with which you are … 

With which you are … 

A life that defines You

Charles Dickens' A TALE OF TWO CITIES ends with this, from the narrator:

It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known.

Let us end with this:

Please repeat:

Today I proclaim my Divine inheritance...

I am rich with the richness of Source...

I am strong with the power of Light...

I am guided by the wisdom of Spirit...

I am held in the goodness of God, today.

If you must define yourself, make that your definition. And watch those “synchronicities”, those “miracles” that seem to just show up when things are going great .... show up even more.

LOVE ONLY - FORGIVE EVERYTHING

REMEMBER WHO YOU ARE!

Namaste!