Power: Choose it, or not

Dearest Goddesses,

Well – Lilith came and scared me away last week with all her talk of power! Since I wasn’t feeling “powerful” it was really hard for me to write about it – I felt a bit like a fraud. And since I didn’t hear from anyone, I made it up that I really wasn’t making a difference anyway. So, I’m done feeling sorry for myself and I think Lilith deserves another week!

I think my experience last week is telling – that we look for “power” outside of ourselves when really it’s always within us – we either choose to experience it or we don’t. I also think it’s interesting to note that power is very much connected to perspective – and what our definition of power looks like. I’ve been told many times how powerful I am when I’m not feeling up to par – essentially, when it comes right down to it, we are not qualified to judge ourselves on our level of power play. To truly find out who you are for other people – just ask them. When I was doing a Landmark Education program, I had to “interview” people in our lives about me – I asked questions like, what do you like most about me, what about me bugs you, what would you miss most about me if you were never to see me again, have I ever disappointed you. Not only was it incredibly insightful and I was able to clean up a lot of messes (Mrs. Ryan told me that it really bothered her that I didn’t use a coaster – I was able to immediately clean this up and under normal circumstances, it never would have come up and forever she would see my coasterless cup and freak out.) as well as see truly how I showed up for the people in my life.

So – what is your definition of power? I think mine is being able to be true to my word – doing what I say I’m going to do by when I say I’m going to do it; making a difference for people; being in action; being in communication; having the resources to follow through; I think my definition of power has a lot to do with my relationship to integrity. None of those things that I listed require outside circumstances to be aligned – they are all action items – all within my control. It’s when circumstances that seem out of my control present themselves – I allow myself to get pushed off the track. Perhaps if I had been in action and communication last week I would have pushed through my circumstances – and created alternative circumstances. And through all of my life’s experiences, it is so clear to me that those things that seemed insurmountable and “end of the world” a lot of times created the greatest of opportunities.

Well, certainly a start to truly exploring power. Please let me know if you need me to resend you the Lilith attachment I sent last Monday. I look forward to delving deeper into power – and especially our definitions of it.

Patty’s Challenge: Begin an inquiry into the question “What is my definition of power?”

Love to you,
Patty