You're A Star, Yes You Are

Celebrity.  What does that mean to you?  Do you envision actors that are stars of stage and screen?  Are you a sports fan and think of an athlete?  Another type of celebrity is royalty.  In America we often tell our little girls that they are princesses, or our little boys are princes.

I actually enjoy watching the clothes that actors and actresses wear when they attend a big event.  I read "People" magazine from time to time.  Recently I was perusing an article that listed celebrities by age, and then put their names by their photos, and a brief description of their clothes and jewelry.  If they wore a designer label, it was listed below their picture.  It made me chuckle when instead of listing a designer label it would say the actresses name and then, "Black dress, with black jewels."  I was very impressed that the actress wearing those clothes didn't particularly care if there was some fancy fashion house designer label on their lovely clothes.

Back to the point, (if you read my blog you know how random I am), are we all stars?  What does that even mean?  As a small child I learned that if I perform by singing and dancing, I receive positive attention.  Unfortunately, I was often dangerously ill as a child.  That would earn me attention but it was of a very negative sort.  Who wants to get attention because they're very, very ill?

Through the years I've pondered the question, "What makes an average, everyday, sort of person into a star?  In my world it is NOT grand acting ability.  It's not being able to earn all types of sports achievements.  It is certainly NOT being born into royalty.  Have you seen all the appointments and duties that royals perform?  Really, I don't think most of us want the type of notoriety that comes with fame.

Up high in our sky at night there are brilliant, twinkling foreign bodies.  They are lovely points of light in a velvety sky of black.  Throughout the world's history from time to time a piece of one of those stars will break away and fall down, down, down into our Earth's atmosphere.  Some of them will flame out before they reach the Earth.  Others will continue down until they reach the ground.

Anything that lands on the Earth's mass eventually becomes part of the earth.  The food that we eat is planted, grown, and harvested from that same Earth.  Each and every part of those stars that landed on our planet are absorbed into the chemicals that create our food, and through our Mother's nutrients create the body that we will travel with through life.

In other words, there are pieces of stars in me.  In you.  In every single person that ever has been born and walked on this Earth.

At one point in my life bed-bound and desperately ill, I felt limited, unable to shine.  A dear friend sent me a bookmark that said, "When you can't make waves, make ripples."  I keep that bookmark close to remind me of that message.

A star brings light.  It illuminates our night sky.  Humans also can bring light into the lives of others.  How?  Think for a moment of any person that brought light into your life.  I immediately think of a huge host of people.  My beloved parents, aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, and then my beloved husband, and our adorable children.  I have dear family who are friends and dear friends who are family.  I am truly blessed with the stars that shine their light into my life.

Let's change the direction of our star light.  What light have YOU brought into the world, into the lives of others around you?  Sometimes, when we are only able to make ripples not waves, we must remind ourselves that we still CAN bring light to others.  We can smile at someone who looks Atlas-like, as though the weight of the world is currently resting upon their shoulders.  We can give a hug and bring the light of love.  There is ALWAYS something we can do to bring light!  I'm going to repeat that because it's so important.  There is ALWAYS something we can do to bring light!

I like to go to cemeteries.  I love to look at tombstones.  I have found so many interesting things written on those markers.  I found the name of the hero of my series, "The Women of the Drifting Anchor Ranch."  (For more information about my series go to http://driftinganchorranch.blogspot.com)  B L A K E C A L K I NS was proudly printed in large letters on an enormous tombstone.  I have often wondered if the actual man was more like Ebenezer Scrooge than he was like the hero of my series.  It doesn't matter.  I didn't write the book about the man listed on the tombstone.  I used the name to create a character of my own.  A side note, I decided to drop the S on the last name Calkins.

One tombstone listed a name (I don't remember the name) and a message that I will never forget. "Here lies a consumate businessman."  Really?  The thing that he wanted to be listed on his tombstone for all to see was that he was a businessman?

One of my favorite lines in the Christmas classic play written by Charles Dickens, "Christmas Carol," is spoken by the ghost of Jacob Marley.  He has been shackled with chains and fetter that he forged with his own lack of life priority.  When Ebenezer Scrooge (his former business partner) seeks to give him some comfort he says, "You were always a good man of business."  Jacob wails, "Business?  Mankind was my business, the common good was my business..."

I've taken you from positive examples of the stars within us, to the negative examples of those who forgot the most important ways to shine in this life.  What will you do with this information?  Let me challenge anyone who reads this post.  Find a way to shine...right now...today...not sometime...someday.  If your ability to make waves is damaged, find ways to make ripples.  Just imagine a world where we genuinely strive to make lights of love.  Find a way, today, not tomorrow, or sometime in the who knows if we will even be alive future, NOW!