Miracles in Opportunity
Oprah is famous for saying, “Luck is when preparation meets opportunity.” It suggests that in every single moment, we are being prepared to meet our opportunity. In the past, I’ve believed opportunity was finite, it’s limited, so you best get on it! But now, I’d say opportunity is abundant and limitless. With my babies, answering their plethora of questions, it’s clear that abundance is not a forgone conclusion in our modern society. Everywhere you turn, the message is that everything is coming to an end: our planet, resources, beauty, age, kindness, and on and on.
When did we become such a fearful society?
My babies, with their wonder and bewildered questions ask what is possible for their life. “Mommy, can I be an actor? Mommy, can I go to school? Mommy, will I have babies?” So many questions at their tender ages.
I’m sure I was that quizzical too. Curiosity is bestowed on every child, not just George, that curious little monkey. I remember only knowing and believing that I could accomplish anything I set my mind to. In high school, it was the strongest. I believed I’d have the opportunity to change my life, that I wouldn’t always be here. I just had the feeling, with no basis of proof. I believed my life carried a calling and the opportunities would be mine and mine alone.
I never thought my opportunity was someone else’s missed opportunity. Each person would be granted their own stake in opportunity: an allotment given to every human being, every minute of every day until the day they die. But what is the true opportunity we are given in abundance? Not jobs. Not Money. Not beauty. Not anything. Our unlimited, bountiful opportunity is love. Ah, the hardest opportunity to grasp.
Why love? My wisdom has grown and led me to this truth: we are nothing and have nothing if we do not find love, be love, and give love. The opportunity to love ourselves has an unlimited bounty waiting each day to grasp, to own and walk into. Love of self lives within us, burns brightly and never leaves us. From day one, each person is born with the opportunity to love and be loved, it’s embedded on our soul.
Can you see the opportunity you have every moment to choose love?
I’m confounded with relief, awe, sadness and amazement as each year draws to a close. Did all of this really happen? The first half feels like a blur and the last half of the year happens in a snap. Many years are spent ‘doing’: pushing, pulling, and forcing square pegs into round holes. Trying so hard and failing miserably when focused on a destination, waiting for my opportunity. Then my soul just said: be still. There is no opportunity out there, your opportunity is in you.
We never know what we carry with us or what we can create until we strip down to meet our opportunity. There are things, full-born, waiting deep inside of our pain until we trust what is under all our explanations and doubts.
Opportunity doesn’t promise a destination or relief from the pressure of not being who we are. Opportunity provides fresh water for the fish of our soul to swim in, and swimming in that fresh water washes clean all that doesn’t matter. This journey inward has me looking backwards more than I would like, but the metaphor of opportunity being water, cleansing our soul from the past, is a comforting one.
If you can believe that every soul has a calling on their soul, a purpose, a grand adventure that is unique to each person, would it not come with an unlimited supply of opportunity for its full expression? If the soul is fully in charge, the source they are connected to must have the ability to create the miracle in opportunity? The moment I decided to let go of creating my opportunities, the opportunities poured endlessly and continue to do so today.
What if we just trusted what’s in front of us and what lies within us?
Creating a tech startup, I can say definitively that if you solve the problems of your heart, the opportunities will never stop being presented to you. Never. I say this emphatically because after being on this start up journey for years and years, each time I’m certain it’s about to fail, an opportunity arrives. As a woman in the tech startup tapestry, I read all the time about how few women CEOs receive funding, support or even begin an idea.
Yet, there is more than one way to receive funding. I know because I’ve tested them. The conventional bubble of where certain types of cash lives may not be a fit for you, but if you are solving a problem of your heart and stay open, you’ll be led to the source of your funding. There were days I had to go right to the cliff and say no to funding that would have hurt and potentially cost me my company. I’d be almost down to my last dollar and God would often present an opportunity. Certain opportunities won’t match your soul’s path, but when you let the soul lead and listen to it’s whispers, your intuition will take you the right way.
In every instance where my soul may have been compromised, my intuition was raising the red flags, and I would inevitably say no. It was frightening and stressful, but I just believed the right opportunity would present itself and it always did. So I ask you, does your heart have a problem you need to solve? How would you define opportunity? Can you witness in your lifetime where you had opportunities and said yes or said no? If you were to remove the obstacles, what opportunities do you think you’d need?
Can you believe your opportunities already exist, imprinted in your soul?
