{ The Value of Love } written by me

Some people thrive on material possessions. They want and want of many things, no matter how to gain it or why it is even needed. Many people obsess over money, whether they are using others to get it, or slaving away at a job they hate in order to feel that thrill on payday. They are at a constant state of wanting. They obsess over shoes, clothes, jewelry, cars, makeup, home goods, and other selfish and irrelevant possessions. They put their many needs in front of and foremost over the ones around them, the ones they love, friends and even family. Many women are in search of someone to take care of them, to financially support their unbalanced lives with money and a sense of security. Many women view someone to take care of them as their crutch, to hold them up as they drag themselves around depending on others. Their values and emotional perspectives are way off the chart. There are parts of their emotional being that is replaced by material wants. They lose the understanding of what is really important, more important they any material object or possession.

Love.

I suppose that is how I know I am stitched from a finer cloth. I have a completely different view on the value of love over money, of what is important and what is not. There are no objects,possessions or material items that can be bought that will ever come close to replacing the value and worth of a loving heart and the connection of souls. Without a doubt, love is the most expensive treasure I have ever experienced,rich or poor, in all my life.

Love is priceless.
Money comes and goes, as well as those people who are forever seeking it. But Love, real Love, lasts through the pennies and dollars. Sure money can buy you a car or some more clothes or even that fancy piece of jewelry you've had your eye on, but to me those things could never compare to the riches a truly loving heart can bring and give.
It's beyond incredible.
I've never been a woman to obsess over shoes or clothes or most of the superficial objects many woman crave. I've never viewed my values or character based off money or how much I can own or take. I've never wanted beyond a reason.
But when I step back and look at my life, I am amazed at how rich I truly am. My heart bursts with the abundance of beautiful things that the foundation my life is built of. The blessings in my life cannot be found in any store or shoved into any wallet.
When I look at the love I have been blessed to hold in my heart and the love that  is accepted and cherished in the hearts of the ones I love, I feel that I am truly the richest person in the whole world ♥

Who are YOU?

Reclaim your born identity, your original nature, the part of you that has nothing to prove or hide or protect, where you are at peace with being fully yourself. This is your true face, the one that radiated with pure potential and light when you were a baby, before the thief called time and the thugs named judgment and conformity, left you clutching at the sculpted masks of who you think you’re supposed to be.

We tend to do our own form of faceoff when it comes to conformity. We spend so much time wearing the masks of who we think we’re supposed to be, or mindlessly wearing the masks that will gain us approval that pretending becomes second nature and we easily forget who we really are. The desire for approval is insatiable in any case. Once you decide you need it, you seek it out like a drug. There are so many stereotypes and expectations vying for your loyalty that it’s easy to forget that true joy in life is found in authenticity. One day you look around your workplace, school, family, church, neighborhood, species….and realize you’ve lost yourself in the crowd. It’s like looking in a mirror. Only not.

 It always pays to be yourself. Think of it this way. Life has so much in store for you by way of gifts and blessings, but if you make it hard to find you because you’re busy pretending to be someone else, then you can’t be surprised that you miss out. It’s like complaining about missing out on the winning lottery ticket if you put someone else’s name on the ticket.

The problem is that a lot of the time, some people don't know who they are. You have to KNOW who you are, in order to BE who you are.  You have to take some of the masks off to remind yourself who you are. Don’t get me wrong. There’s nothing wrong with wearing masks. They serve an essential purpose if you use them skillfully; the parent’s mask, the sibling’s mask, the helper’s mask, the teacher’s mask, the listening friend’s mask, the competent achiever’s mask, the passionate activist’s mask, to name a few. There are healthy masks and unhealthy masks, like the ruthless “don’t get in my way” mask and the “I don’t need anybody” mask. The unhealthy masks hide your essential nature behind a façade of protection, fear and self loathing.

 None of the masks, healthy or not, fully define you. They change constantly, and are easy to mistake for the real you. So you end up spending all your time behind masks and forgetting who you are at your essence.

So who are you? And I don’t mean what gender, religion, ethnicity, class, personality type, sexual orientation, profession, enneagram combination, star sign, age or stage in life are you.

Who are YOU??

Your identity and roles change all the time. Your essence never changes. Your essence is not about what you do. It’s about who you are.  We all have our challenges, where our usual roles are taken from us, and they become opportunities to find deeper strength and identity. 

  Strip away some of the layers of who you think you are, what you do, and who other people expect you to be. Some of them are amazing skills, and fine qualities. They are awesome expressions of who you are, but they aren’t in themselves YOU. Some of them are protections and delusions. You have been wearing some of them for so long that it’s hard to tell the mask from the face. Step outside of as many identities and roles as you can, even for a few moments and you will see beyond them to your essence. You may need to go to great lengths to recover this true identity but you will survive. In fact you will thrive once you realize that most of the struggle is within yourself. But it’s worth the effort. The reward is authenticity, your born supremacy.

The incredible thing is that as you reconnect with your true essence, you discover mastery at knowing which roles to play and why; you become more natural and less attached to your changing identity. So start digging a little deeper into your essence today so that you can rediscover the agreement you made with your true nature long ago; your born ultimatum that the more authentic your life, the more joy you will experience. Authenticity is the primary quality you will look back on at the end of your days to measure the impact of your life.

When we die and go to Heaven, our Maker is not going to say, "Why didn’t you discover the cure for such and such?" The only thing we’re going to be asked at that precious moment is, "Why didn’t you become you?"