It doesn’t really come from outside you. You know this, right? I mean, you can look with your eyes wide open; you can search and search for what you long for until your body is weary and your sight is clouded. But you are never going to find it. Not there. Not in the distance. Not in the web of lies that lives outside your heart.

You have to go in. You have to go so far inside the marrow of your bones that you become the cells that make up the universe. You have to listen for your own heartbeat, your own breath. You have to become the stillness and the rhythm of the ocean that lives inside of you.

It’s so tempting to look outside. And so deceptive. Yes, it seems like your Facebook friend with the perfect hair and the beautiful, happy children and the fabulous job that takes her all around the world has it all figured out.  Yes, it’s true that your brother went to medical school and now he’s a famous doctor and you’re just, just, wait… what is it you’re doing?

Oh, right, you’re the one that lost herself and keeps trying to find her way. You are the one that never quite gets it right in the eyes of the world.

But listen, I have a secret for you. Let’s get quiet for a moment. Take a breath with me. Because you are the one that the world is calling to right now.

You are here, with nothing but your naked heart and your wide-eyed dreams and your uncanny ability to stop everything to notice the sound of the birds singing. You are here with the music in your heart that makes you weep. You are here with your bare feet on the grass and the hawk calling to you from the giant oak tree and the sky singing just for you in such a deep blue that you can hardly hold the power in your body.

You are here because you gave up everything else but this, you gave up trying to fit yourself into the places that made you itch and squirm, you gave up trying to be someone else, because you are just, well, you are just weird. Let’s just admit it, you are weird and a little too wild for the others to handle you. You know what the earth feels like, you know the ocean is in your veins, you know you can’t be anything other than who you are, and you are desperate to find out who that is. You will do anything, anything, to be free.

You have followed this longing, this drive, this yearning again and again even though it didn’t make sense to the others. You have been letting go, taking risks, jumping in for a long, long time.

And now you are here.You are here with your purpose and your calling and your sacred gift that only you can give birth to. You are here with your mystical eyes shining out at the world. And the secret is that here the world is shining her delight in you right back.

That is what the inside is saying now. The ocean inside of you has a message for you. And you find it by going in. Listen to her whisper. She says now is your time. And that you will find the answers to all of your longings by doing what you have always done, by doing what you do best, which is to listen with ears that hear the truth. To see with eyes that remember. To know with your heart and to believe with the untouchable spirit that is completely your own. You are here. And we are glad.