“The meaning of life is to find your gift. The purpose of life is to give it away.”

– Pablo Picasso

Most of us have heard the idea that no two snowflakes are alike. Perhaps like me, you think this is an amazing expression of nature at work. But guess what? The same applies to all of us! No two people are exactly alike! Not only our DNA, but our life experiences and how we interpret them make us unique.

I’d like to use the example of a jigsaw puzzle to illustrate my point. In a jigsaw puzzle there’s no one piece that matters more than any other regardless of its shape, size or place in the puzzle. It takes every piece to complete the puzzle. Though each piece plays a different role and has different characteristics, no one piece is more important than another. Diversity reigns when it comes to jigsaw puzzles.

Just as the fun of jigsaw puzzles and the beauty of nature are related to their diversity and contrast, so is our life. The purpose of our lives can be found in expressing what is unique or different in each of us. As we express our uniqueness, “we get happy”! The very characteristics about ourselves, that perhaps when we were younger, made us feel “different” or bad about ourselves, are our special gifts, our interests or abilities.

How do we figure out what is unique about ourselves? Here’s a suggestion. Take a private moment and recall the times in your life when you’ve been most happy and ask yourself; “What was I doing? When have I been so involved in something that I’ve happily lost track of time? When have I felt my absolute best?” If you can’t recall any of these times, construct an imaginary day of your dreams and look at it’s elements and qualities.

This is what I believe. Everyone has a gift to give. The special contribution only we can make is already inside of us waiting to be expressed. Whatever your gift is it will be beneficial to people or your life in some way. Even if your gift may not seem unique, I’m an idea person but many people have good ideas, it is the way in which you give your gift that makes it like no other.

Giving our gift has a positive rippling effect in our world we can’t always see. When we’re giving our gift, we feel better (ok, maybe even fabulous). When we feel better, our experience of life is better and everything and everyone our life touches benefits. How good would it feel when we near the end of our lives to know that we’ve found and been able to give that which only we could give? And, because we did, we leave this world a little better off!

With love, Jackie