Personal Legend

Sometimes our prayers get answered without us realizing it. A couple of years back I was at this crossroad of “what to do with my life?” I didn’t want to be one of those people who spent 20 years doing something they hated only to realize they had always wanted to do something totally different with their lives. Then again I didn’t want to be one of those people who spent 20 years chasing a dream. I mean, I have a daughter to feed, clothe, and house so I needed to be practical about how to make money now!

Then, I got this challenge from my friend Ms. Erica Page to do this 30-day letter challenge. This challenge meant that I was to blog a letter to a different person every single day for 30 days. And in typical Alcinia fashion I only got about half way through the 30 letter and in about triple the time. But what can I am an artist (prounounced: ar-teest) and you have to feel for it to be worth anything of value. But this challenge set off a fire storm of recognizing my gift and my talent of writing both within myself and also by others.

I have had this blog for quite a few years now and other than close friends and family I never had much traffic to the site. But once I joined the challenge and I started publicly sharing the blog with others the traffic easily doubled. The blessing in that was people began to share with me the effectiveness of my writing. I have had  numerous personal messages emailed and inboxed to me from Facebook of people telling me how my writing had affected them and how they enjoyed it. There were people who I would have never thought would take the time to read a blog responding to me and without me realizing it; reaffirming to me what my gift and my talent was.

See I believe we can only be happy when our gifts and talents are used in a way that sustains us, whether it is being used to sustain us financially or emotionally or even physically. If we aren’t using them and cultivating them then I think we become most miserable. John W. Gardner, a former US Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare under the Lyndon B. Johnson Administration said, “True happiness involves the full use of one’s power and talents.” And at that time I was totally unsure of what my talent was or how to use it to sustain me which also made me so unhappy with myself and with my life. I felt I had no goals and no direction and that is a terrible place to be in. But through this blog and all the responses I have received (both negative and positive) I have come to realize my personal legend. I have realized the talent that I possess that I can use to sustain me. It is my writing.

For now my writing is just sustaining me emotionally and spiritually. My soul needs to write like my body needs water; it can only go so long without it. But now I am working on getting my talent to sustain me financially. I want a job that does not feel like work at all but feels like the reason God blessed me with mercy of a brand new morning when I open my eyes. So now I have determined my gift and I am following my personal legend, and all without realizing my prayer had actually been answered.

May 10, 2011. Uncategorized.