This seems to be the theme for this week, “If you can’t fix it, feature it1.” I wish I could say I created that phrase, but it was given to me by a colleague of mine Rev Glenna Tillery Shepherd, pastor at Decatur UCC in Decatur, GA. It is like that old saying, we have all heard – “When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.” We all have things, situations, and parts of our lives that we can’t fix. It is not about what it is, but what you do with it.
This week, for me, has been filled with examples of featuring it, when you can’t fix it. For example, the other day I met an amazing person who has Tourette’s syndrome (his can’t fix it thing), however, when he is drumming he becomes asymptomatic. Therefore, he drums. He has taken what has helped him all his life and features it in every aspect of his life. Someone else I watched on Chopped one day spoke about how when he is in the kitchen he stops having the tics that come with Tourette’s. This morning I watched this video about a young man named Tim who has Down Syndrome. So what did he do? He opened a restaurant which serves breakfast, lunch, and hugs. He has taken something he can’t fix (not that it needs to) and featured it.
Inspiritual was my way of featuring something I could not fix. When they cancelled the bus line servicing my neighborhood, the paratransit services here were virtually eliminated. Making the local transit provider restore a bus line so I could have services again was not something I could fix, or at least not easily do, or do in a short period. Since my ability to go places was virtually eliminated, I began bringing the world and its teachers here. Over the last four years, we have gone from offering one or two programs per week to where we have something going on here just about every day. Even though I cannot easily go out into the world anymore, people somehow continue to find their way here; maybe, because like Tim, we serve spiritual evolution, transformation, and love.
There is an abundance of examples of those who have featured what they cannot fix. The powerful message behind it, however, is powerful. If you can fix it, then fix it. However, if you can’t fix it, then feature it. Turn those things, which you think are your liabilities into assets. Take your lemons and make them lemonade. Love all the aspects of who you are and make them work for you. You are worthy of being featured in your own life story. There is no need to cast yourself as a supporting role or an extra in your own life; you should be the feature role.
So this week think about how you can take your lemons and make lemonade. How can you take what can’t fix and feature it? What changes do we need to make in our lives in order to be able to say, “Mr. De Mille, I am ready for my close up.”