My Presence Is a Gift

In week four of Self-Mastery class our assignment was to read the following piece by Paul Williams from Remember Your Essence and write a thought paper: 

          Your Essence

          Picture a burning log, like in a fireplace, a hearth. 

          Now see it as if it were floating in the air a few feet in front of you, 
          and notice that there are two elements here: the log, and the fire 
          that clings to it. 

          Now move this image of a burning object into your body, so that you 
          can feel it like a warm, comforting glow inside your chest. 

          This burning log is real, and it exists inside you. 


          The inexhaustible log is called your essence; and the fire, the flame, 
          is your life. 

          You are a source of warmth and light. 

          Children who are cold or lonely or unsure come to you for comfort, 
          and you always have comfort to give. 

          Even at your moments of greatest doubt, when you feel totally 
          closed down to the world and to yourself, the life still burns in 
          you, and your essence remains pure and powerful and untouched. 

          Your fears and resentments may blind you, may cripple you, may 
          seem to totally absorb you, but they cannot stop you from being 
          a source of warmth and light. 

          You are who you are regardless of who you think you are. 

          Your thoughts affect your actions, and they affect your perception, 
          your experience, of everything around you. 

          Your thoughts control your experience of reality. But your thoughts 
          cannot affect or change or control or even touch who you are. 

          You have a power that has nothing to do with what you do, or what 
          you say, or who you know, or what you know, or where you are, or 
          what you look like, or your skills, or your talents, or what you have. 

          It is the power of your presence. 

          It is the heat and light from your burning log. 

          And it touches everyone who comes in contact with you...

          Remember Your Essence

I wrote:

A few years back my sister called me, very distraught, and I talked to her for over an hour. Her boyfriend, the father of her son, had moved out again after a few months of having moved back in, and the disappointment of having to raise her son on her own again was too much for her. As she cried and cried, I comforted her as best I could. I told my therapist later how badly I felt that I didn’t have any money to give her. I was in Los Angeles while she was on the east coast, and I felt terrible that there wasn’t anything concrete and substantial I could do to help. My therapist suggested that maybe she didn’t want money or other help from me - maybe she just wanted someone to listen.

Paul Williams’ piece reminds me that my presence is a gift, even when my small self might feel that I have nothing to offer. Up until now I have felt at times that I need to earn more money or have more accomplishments to be worthy. In the past it was challenging to believe that partners were truly interested in me or that friends were happy to pay for my dinner in exchange for my company. I accept that my presence has a power that is enough. My presence is heat and light which touches everyone who comes in contact with me. I am grateful for this reminder.

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Rev. Anna Marie's comment on it was, "It’s such a powerful awareness to know that you are enough and that your presence is a gift to others. From this awareness and your gratitude you will begin to see some incredible shifts in how things show up in your life. Know that you are a blessing and you are blessed."