I am not so special, that is OK

…try wishing yourself well in these ways: May I be loved without being special.  May I contribute without being special.  Consider renouncing specialness – including be important and admired.  Renunciation is the antitheses of clinging, and thus a radical path to happiness.

                                                                                      Rick Hanson, Buddah’s Brain

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Most of us

At one time or another

End up with a hole in our hearts

We are taught from the beginning

That we have to important

And our hearts demand love, and praise

(not bad things)

But most of the time

Perhaps because of our expectations of others

And mostly because of our expectations of ourselves

We end up with a hole in our hearts

And we try so hard to fill it!

The self gets very busy around that hole

We look for proof of our worth

We try to create evidence of our worth

We try to do big things, huge things, amazing things

And all we do is end up pretentious

Sometimes arrogant

We end up hidden behind masks of our own making

And the hole remains

And how miserable we are

But the secret is this

All we have to do is two things

And the hole will be filled.

First we let go of our expectations of ourselves

And of others

We realized that we can be loved

Are loved, without being special

We are just loved, because

Well, because we are precious children of the Sacred

All of us!

We don’t have to prove ourselves to the Sacred

We don’t have to prove ourselves to anyone else

We just have to be

Ourselves

And second, we have to fill the hole

Not with big works, huge works, the greatest works,

Not by putting ourselves forward

Or putting others down

But by doing little things

Every day

One little thing a day

A smile given

A hand offered in friendship

A kind word

A generous act

Each act a brick, filling the hole

And we look at the little things we get every day

The love of others

A word of respect or thanks

More bricks

Filling the hole

We look for the good,

And we do the best we can

Small acts

That fill a big hole

And it all begins

By renouncing specialness

As defined by humans

And accepting our common specialness

As defined by the Sacred