We will open the book. Its pages are blank. We are going to put words on them ourselves. The book is called Opportunity, and its first chapter is titled ‘New Year’s Day.’ —Edith Lovejoy Pierce
Welcome to the land of opportunity! It is a wonderful place where we are supported by the universe in coauthoring the story of our lives. We have the opportunity to choose who we are, what we will have a chance to experience, and how we will move through the world this next year. So what opportunities would you like to take advantage of and/or create for yourself in your life, in Love?
Opportunities are always there, with arms held open waiting for us to embrace them. To embrace the life that could exist for us if only we were willing to take a chance, be frightened, but do it anyway. To embrace whom we might become, the greatness that lays dormant within us, the greatness that is waiting to be released into the world. Opportunity offers us a chance to be more than we ever believed we could be and have a life beyond our dreams that we never knew we could have. Opportunities come in cycles. Sometimes our opportunity will support our career, at other times the opportunity will support our relationship. Opportunity is always in support of our growth and the deepening of our relationship with our higher self and with the universe. So how does this apply to my relationship you might ask?
Relationships hold some of the deepest and most profound opportunities of our lives. Think about your relationship. Better yet, take out your journal or a piece of paper and a pen and answer the following questions:
1. How have I grown as a person since entering this relationship?
2. What have I learned about myself as a result of this relationship?
3. What have I learned about the world since I have been in this relationship?
4. What skills do I have now that I did not have before this relationship?
5. In what way does this relationship support me?
6. How do I express myself differently as a result of my relationship?
7. What new experiences have I had since entering my relationship?
Your answers are your partial list of your opportunities that you have already taken advantage of whether you were conscious of them or not. Opportunities usually take place in a relationship on a daily basis, for the most part in fairly subtle ways. All those moments were still opportunities to learn, to grow, and to expand.
One of the greatest opportunities offered to us in a relationship is to Love; to learn to care for someone outside of ourselves, someone with their own life, history, challenges, and different set of eyes. It is in this emotional intimacy that we learn to not only Love them, but to Love ourselves in a way that is independent of ego and narcissism.
To be able to Love outside of ego and narcissism is an opportunity to experience true love. Unconditional Love is what most of us look for throughout our lives, how we desire to love others. Most of us never have the chance to experience that kind of freedom within Love, since in most of the relationships we create we are very attached to what our partner looks like and how they behave. We are given many opportunities to let go of our preconceptions, rules, definitions, and expectations of Love and to live in that true state of Love, which is freedom. First we must embrace the opportunity to let go, stop trying to control Love because we can’t. Love has never, and will never, allow itself to be controlled. In that state, by definition, it ceases to be Love.
Challenges in a relationship, as in life, are often opportunities in disguise. In times of challenge we are asked to make choices, reinforce our values, see things in a new way, and expand our way of thinking. The next time you are faced with a challenge, ask yourself the following questions that will allow you to understand the opportunity:
1. What makes this situation a challenge for me?
2. What point of view would I have to hold to see it as an opportunity?
3. What is this situation asking me to do out of my highest and best?
4. What place of comfort and familiarity am I being asked to leave? Can I summon up the courage to leave it?
5. What part of this experience is growth for me?
In answering these questions you can start to become conscious of some of the ways opportunities are brought to you, and how you can take advantage of them.
Here are some ways to better embrace opportunity:
• Remember that not all opportunities are obvious.
• Not all opportunities are about a “this or that” decision.
• Opportunities are often disguised as challenges.
• All opportunity is about growth.
• All opportunities are based on the choices we make to grow, living in our highest and best and staying in integrity.
• Embracing opportunity leads you closer to your highest and best life, in an ongoing way.
By embracing opportunities we are actually becoming the coauthor of our life. All the opportunities we choose to embrace, that allow us to move forward, grow, and move into our highest and best—our place of deep heart and integrity—are always the correct choices. As each opportunity presents itself to support us in expanding who we are and allow us to show up with more than we thought we were capable of, the opportunities are moving us one step further into the greatness of our lives. If we can let go of the past and our self-imposed limitations, each opportunity to become more then we are at this moment is one more page in our best-selling book entitled, Opportunity. Happy New Year!
©2007 Erika Morrell