You are the Pearl

by Leslie Sann

No Grit. No Pearl.
~ Unknown

We have been conditioned to believe life on earth is hard and challenges are bad. Yet, I bet if you look at it more closely, you can see how challenges can propel you to learn and grow and become something more than you were before.

If you want the gifts, you endure the process. Pearls, for example, are formed when an irritant, such as a grain of sand, becomes trapped in the mollusk. The mollusk secretes substances which are deposited around the irritant and grow over time, forming a pearl.

What if seeming adversity is similar to the irritant sand that is to the oyster or clam? What if you are that pearl and your life, exactly as it is unfolding, is the friction needed to support you in becoming the gift you are?

Take a moment and notice what in your life you are experiencing as irritating.

  • What is it rubbing against in you?
  • Is there a rough spot being polished into a smooth ease?
  • What might the gift of the irritation be?
  • How might it be challenging you to let go of something no longer needed?
  • What is the beauty of the pearl emerging?

Go pearl yourself. Life Happens: What Are YOU Going to Do About It? What if you used whatever is annoying you to grow yourself into more? What if you allowed the irritant to contribute to you? What might be the blessing in the disturbance?

FYI: Natural pearls are rare and hundreds of oysters or clams would have to be opened to find one wild pearl. Are you just one of many irritated mollusks or are you a pearl in the making?

Tell me all about it: leslie@living-bydesign.com