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A Pearl is the Fruit of a Frustrated Oyster

The Pearl is a beautiful, sought after and cherished gem amongst many people around the world. It’s the natural result of years of pain and frustration endured by the creature that created it…. the oyster. In it as itself, not a beautiful being, but clearly capable of creating extraordinary things. Our family was recently on a trip to Palm Springs to visit family and on the Sunday, we joined along to attend Sunday Church which is always a great experience of positive music, community and a Pastor who you can count on to deliver a powerful message to the attendees of the day. This Sunday was no different. There was talk of challenge, of struggle, of conflict and on the other side there was talk of achievement, of connection and of triumph. Interesting in how he spoke of the two opposing forces needing each other as we are always in the pull between Character and Conflict and how through challenge, both are worked on equally. So, what does this mean? Have you ever found yourself frustrated in the process of working towards a goal and decided that the goal isn’t worth the struggle and frustration to attain it? That we told ourselves, “it’s not worth it”, “this will never work”, “everyone is against me”, “it is what it is”, “I’m not good enough”….I’m sure you can fill in a few more blanks yourself as we ALL run this internal dialogue continuously throughout our lives. Both Kari-Lyn and I have experienced these moments continuously throughout our 28+ years together and we anticipate that there are many more moments to come. So, if we know that these moments are “normal” and an important part of the process in reaching our goals, in fact, critical according to the lesson we heard during that pastor’s sermon as “we can’t build our character without working through conflict.” Did you receive that? “You can’t build your character without working through conflict.” Most people feel the friction of conflict and pull back. We can feel the resistance and create the external excuses as to why the things we dream about are not possible for us. That’s the easy track…but by far the hardest track because most often it leaves us with a feeling in the pit of our stomach of unfulfillment and unworthiness as opposed to fulfilled, on purpose and abundant. That’s where the lifetime of pain can come from, and because...