Who I Am Is...

Today was Community Sunday for the fifth weekend of the Wisdom Course.  My favorite exercise of the day was one where we were in groups of about six people, and one person stood up in the middle of the group and turned to each person and said, "Who do you say I am?"  Then each person in the group had a chance to tell the person in the center who they are for them.  "I say you are love, compassion, strength, adventure, a good friend..." etc.  You would think that this is an exercise you can only do with people you know, and yet the interesting part of it is that you can do this exercise with a total stranger, just based on your impression of them.  To be able to acknowledge a total stranger is something very powerful...imagine what the world could be like if we all did that?

I did this exercise last year when I was a participant in the Wisdom Course, and it was very powerful.  People say some amazing things.  This year, I was assisting on the course, and so I got to hear about myself in a whole different way...how I show up for people as someone who supports the participants.  I swear, I wished I could record the things everyone was saying, and just play them back for myself every morning, or anytime I get down on myself.  It's so interesting to hear the way I show up for people.  A lot of it I know about myself, and it's nice to hear.  But some of it is stuff that I don't necessarily think of myself as, and I could see it.

The next part of the exercise is for each person to say whether or not we would be willing to live as others see us, rather than as the perhaps less flattering image we have of ourselves in our own head.  I said Yes.  Wouldn't that be something?  See, I'm not a person who doesn't know my own strengths and good qualities...I do!  At least, when I'm being very logical and thinking clearly.  :)  And, when I'm being very human, I can get rather stuck in thinking some less flattering things about myself.  So if I could live all the time as the generous, loving, compassionate, fun, adventurous, cute, accepting, joyous, beautiful person that others see me as...heck yeah!!  I would definitely take that on!  The question now becomes...How?

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