Meditation: What Value Do You Bring to the World?

Let me expand for a minute on my last post. It is a broad topic and there is plenty of room for misunderstanding. What I mean to say is something akin to the idea that there is merit to be found if you look, in anything, anywhere.

I am reminded by a book I read a long time ago by Auschwitz survivor Victor Frankl called, "Man's Search for Meaning". In it he basically describes the means by which he endured truly extraordinary circumstances in a concentration camp that were beyond his control. Central to his idea is the notion that man has the ability to choose freedom, even in the most dire circumstances. That we have inspiration for that freedom in our personal value.

Think on it a minute. Everyone is of value. You are a valuable person. There is some quality about you that is irreplaceable in the world. Whether you are a father, a mother, a sister, a brother, a friend or lover, you are in some way unique to the world. You exist in a way that no one else can for yourself and for those around you. There is something about you that can not be duplicated or imitated, it is yours alone and the world is a better place because of it.

Today's meditation: determine what value you bring to the world and recognize the value of others in your life, even those you resist or with whom you have difficulty communicating. Let this be the place from where you act, the source of your inspiration, the quality that brings freedom into your day-to-day life.