Yesterday I was talking with a friend about moving forward and how to do that. She asked me this question: What serves Lynn.
And I have to admit that’s a difficult question to answer, especially since I am someone who serves others. I can read the energy of a room or a person and know what kind of approach is needed to move forward, or at least, through.
I am a facilitator, a communicator, and a feeler. I believe above all else, people deserve to be treated with compassion and respect. And when I see someone being treated otherwise, I am that person who steps forward to placate the situation. Because I do know how it feels to be disrespected and undervalued.
Recently I said in an Instagram post that I am out of love with retail. And that’s true. I feel like this business places the lowest price possible on our efforts, our vision, our investment and our worth as human beings. I’ve said many times, retail is broken. And it is. The store front is disappearing. And so are the dreamers who envisioned something special and gave her everything to bring it to life, and to keep it alive.
lt’s not personal, you say. But it is. My heart feels broken most days.
“I would paint the sky all the colours of possibility.”
I go back, at times like this, to these words that I wrote in 2011 after a toxic workplace left me stripped of my purpose as I saw it at the time. I had made the mistake that many of us do - I tied my personal worth to my business card and lost sight of myself.
This mantra helped me get off the floor, wipe away my tears, and inspired me to do something every day that made me feel better. Eventually I felt better a little more each day.
I can’t say I feel better everyday, but I can say that what makes me feel better is creating beautiful spaces, painting a room just to change perspective, hugging my dog, getting my nails done, dressing in something fabulous and moving my body and teaching others to move their bodies.
The lesson that I learned in 2011 is a valuable insight: that self worth and identity is who we are, our essence, and not what we do.
Healing is a process that I think we all share. So the question - what serves Lynn - is a hard question to answer, because if wishes and desire were pennies, life would look very different.
But looking forward and inward is the assignment.
Stay close. Maybe we will learn something important.
Lynn