We all have “gifts”: talents
and abilities that are uniquely our own.
Some we know. Some we don’t. Some we don’t even realize are talents.
If there is one person in the
world who should be an expert on “you”, you would think it would be you, but
how many of us really don’t know ourselves?
The reason why is because self discovery can be uncomfortable. Often we have to force ourselves out of our
comfort zones to find out who we are, but it doesn’t have to be.
Sometimes just making little
changes that takes out of the mindless routines that we all fall into can make
a huge difference: removing the blank spots on the piano roll of life where we
lived, but didn’t, that’s all it really takes.
Sometimes getting free of them
is as simple as taking a different way to work: going right when you would
normally have gone left; maybe even doing something you always wanted to do,
but never tried. Making little changes
that remove us from the normal routines and forces to live in the moment
instead of just passing through it, and in the end, we become different.
This is a story I heard years
ago, told to me by a back stage guy at the Frontier in Las Vegas. I don’t know how much of it is true, but it
serves a point.
Phillip (not sure of his real
name), was a traveling salesman around the turn of the century. He traveled around the world and truth be
known, as a salesman, he really wasn’t very good, but he had one unique talent,
considered by almost everyone he knew, to be interesting, but useless. Phillip could run on his knees. In fact, he could run faster on his knees
than most people could on their feet.
At parties he would show off
his unique talent by pulling the weight of several people along with him, and
though everyone was impressed, none thought it was of any value… yet Phillip
practiced. He got even faster and
stronger.
But fate and destiny
sometimes have a way of colliding. One day flying back to the United States from
a trip overseas, disaster struck. It was
1937, Lakehurst New Jersey, and as the aircraft came in for a landing, a fire
broke out, but this was no ordinary aircraft and the fire was no ordinary fire.
Phillip was aboard the
Hindenburg, and as it touched the mooring tower an explosion rocked the
ship. Fire swept through the giant aircraft
in a matter of minutes, and people began jumping from the broken windows and
portals just to escape. When Phillip
jumped he hit the ground so hard that both of his ankles were broken.
Two passengers landed on
either side of him, knocked unconscious by the fall.
Of the 97 people on board (36 passengers and 61 crewmen), there were 35 fatalities (13 passengers and 22 crewmen). Phillip survived, as did the two people that landed next
him, and the only reason they did, was because they were just lucky enough to fall
next to a little man who could drag them to safety, because he had the
worthless talent of being able to run on his knees.
No talent is without value,
even those that others may think are worthless, and they are given to us for a
reason.
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