Open Your Gifts

Your Soul Knows – Chapter 3 – JohnA Passaro

Every adversity,
Every failure,
Every heartache,
Carries with it
The seed of something greater.

Napoleon Hill
Think and Grow Rich

A little more than five years ago my world was knocked off of its axis and out of its orbit when my daughter Jessica lost oxygen to her brain for six minutes.

Every second of every day since that derailment, I have been trying to get my life back onto its orbit.

It is sort of like attempting to get back on a fast-moving merry-go-round, but every time I try, my life just spits me right back out.

With each failed attempt to regain my orbit, I learn a little more about the universe.

Recently, I have learned according to the Universal Law of “The Seed of Something Greater,” when the universe takes something from you, it is required to give you ‘The Seed of Something Greater’ in return.

What you do with that seed, whether you plant and nourish it and let it grow to bear fruit, or whether you ignore it and let it wither and die, is up to you.

The seed is simple and complex at the same time.

It is a powerful gift.

One, which is comprised of many truths.

One of those truths is perspective.

Having perspective is like viewing a high definition television for the first time, it crystallizes the beauty and the details of life.

Perspective allows you to see life using the same set of eyes, but it enables you to see things you previously overlooked, things that were hiding in plain sight.

Perspective allows you to view life differently.

Perspective allows you to live your life exponentially better by experiencing every aspect of your life more magnificently.

Perspective hasn’t made my loss any less painful, but it has given me clarity on what is truly important in life.

To treat one another with love.

That is it.

Devon Franklin, in his book “Produced by Faith,” writes:

“The truth is, you and I are in control of only two things:

How we prepare for what might happen and how we respond to what just happened.”

I believe there is a third thing we are in control of – the ability to treat each other with love.

That, we all can do.

And it is there where we should concentrate all of our energies.

To treat each other with love doesn’t require money, or social status or an education; it only requires we open the gifts we each have received from having adversity in our lives.

To have perspective.

Adversity is a very valuable resource.

I recently heard someone speak about a phenomenon in our generation, one where some well-meaning parents try to clear the path for their children by eliminating all adversity in their lives, they called it Genetically Modified Parenting.

It is sort of like what Monsanto is doing to corn.

Monsanto, by genetically modifying the DNA of corn, allows more corn to be produced, but in the process sucks the nutritional value out of the corn, which defeats the point of producing corn.

In essence, this phenomenon of parents eliminating adversity from their kids’ lives is producing genetically modified kids.

By eliminating adversity in their kid’s lives these parents have sucked the nutrition out of their kids’ lives.

Adversity is the nutrition, which spurs growth.

Ironically, these well-meaning parents have done the exact opposite of what they intended to do.

They are eliminating the one thing that will provide their kids with more growth – adversity.

Adversity is a gift.

It is a rare person in this world who understands this truth before adversity strikes them.

For the rest of us, it requires a life-changing event to fully comprehend the value of adversity.

I know there is more than enough adversity in this world, which conversely should mean there should be more than enough perspective in this world as well.

There is not.

The world’s most valuable, untapped natural resources are the gifts that have been earned through adversity and have yet to be opened – seed’s that can wither away or bear fruit.

Imagine how different this world would be if everyone opened their gift and gained perspective.

I just wrote that to myself on my outdated iPhone 5s.

And it didn’t kill me.