Power
Does permed helmet-head in a button up cardi sound like power to you?
She fit my image of a 1950s middle-aged housewife: conservative black loafers, a buttoned-up sweater, and non-descript, permed brown hair. Her name was Norma. For years she would travel with her husband over an hour each way to see me for treatment. She would primly sit her rounded body on my most comfortable office chair and quietly tell me how things were going. Her demeanor and voice seemed like a constant apology.
One day I sensed something different. There was a subtle change in the way she entered the room. She always sat fully erect but, for some indescribable reason, on this day she seemed less round and not so prim - it was as if she wasn’t folding in on herself.
Over a few months I watched Norma’s sense of personal power shift. There was a special ‘confidence energy’ was seeping into her. And no, this wasn’t some kind of mystical glow-up, it was as if she gradually stopped being defined by outside sources and moved into her own body.
It takes effort not to give away our worth and it’s even more of an uphill climb if we feel we have none to give away in the first place. But as we move through life, hopefully we act like Norma and realize that no one is coming along to hand us our personal power, just as no thing is going to happen that makes us feel like we’ve got it all figured out.
In my experience, we often must scramble toward, occasionally search for, and always hold tight to, the sacred essence that is our light.