Everyone is a Genius!

Everyone is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid. —Albert Einstein

I have spent a large part of my life trying to “keep up with the Jones”. I never thought I was good enough, or had a big enough house, or knew how to dress well enough, much less be able to afford it. I always wanted less wrinkles and smoother skin. I wanted a better hair color and more significant choices that padded my resume.

Until I learned that none of that really matters.

Why was I a fish out out of water, always thinking I needed to climb a tree. If Albert Einstein knew the fallacy of all of this, then why wasn’t it something taught in school? Why was the community I lived in as an adult so material. Why was it important for my offspring to compete with other families children?

I was probably partly insecure about my history because my parents were divorced in the early 1960’s, which was unheard of back then, but also because I never attended college until I was 27 years old and married with children. I left home at 17 to escape abuse and floundered my way through my 20’s as best I could, when other young adults, my age were going to frat parties and sorority formals.

How many of us are living like this, thinking of ourselves as somehow defective, undeserving of a great life? How many of us have lived with childhoods that were plagued with abuse and neglect? Did that make us unworthy of belonging? Unworthy of love and respect? Does not having a college degree make us stupid, or is that something society put upon those of use who didn’t follow the norm? Was a lack of financial independence a reason to fail?

Still some, found the world confining—hemmed in by the rules and judgments of a punitive religious family. I never felt this way, as the one thing my family did right was allow me to explore my own spirituality as a young child. However, I know many people, who to this day suffer from the oppression of a religion that believes that normal indulgences are sinful, harmful and beyond forgiveness.

When I left home, I realized that the world was bigger and wider and more wonderful than I’d been told. I knew I wasn’t going to be able to stay in that smaller, more restricted world.

It has always been helpful to me to understand that, for all of us, there exists a gap—sometimes huge—between who we really are and who we appear to be. This is one of the gifts, among others, of a difficult childhood. We are influenced in part by how others see us, and in fact we teach them how to see us.

It wasn’t until I totally removed myself from the material expectations of this world until I began to see the value in life itself. I began to see nature and the genius of it all as a way to descend into authenticity. It was the wandering in wonder and the genuine nature of the divine that enlightened me to discover a path I never knew existed.

So, what I’m saying is, give up that pair of Jimmy Choo sunglasses and Tory Burch handbag. Set your sights on those things in life that only God can create. Those ideals that make a person of integrity and genuine authenticity. Those things that all of us are born with, whether we know it or not.