“I believe that you’re great, that there’s something magnificent about you. Regardless of what has happened to you in your life. Regardless of how young or old you think you might be. The moment you begin to ‘think properly,’ this something that’s within you, this power within you that’s greater than the world, it will begin to emerge. It will take over your life. It will feed you. It will clothe you. It will guide you, protect you, direct you, sustain your very existence. If you let it. Now that is what I know, for sure.” – Rev. Michael Bernard Beckwith

By Dawn Onley

If you were asked to pick a genre of music to describe yourself, what would you pick and why?

Is your life like a country song? Are you more cheerful and breezy like a pop tune? Are you soulful and sultry like rhythm and blues? Do you prefer hardcore like hard rock or rap, or are you meditative and reflective like easy listening? Are you even grooving to the right tune?

Whatever your tempo and temperament, Rev. Michael Bernard Beckwith says, “the universe corresponds to the nature of your song.”

Our disposition provides a glimpse of how we approach life. Our outlook is the nature of our song, but one thing we should always keep in mind is that our outlook is not set in stone. It is malleable. We can improve our attitudes and enhance our outlooks; we don’t have to remain as we are. Our natural bent may be skeptical, distrusting, angry or bitter, but we don’t have to give those leanings the final say. We may be pessimistic but if we think it is hindering more positive things from happening in our lives, we can choose to take a better perspective.

We get a choice on what music we want to embody. Life circumstances – good or bad — have very little to do with it. We can be steeped in life’s struggles, at some point we all will be, but just like a tea bag, we can transform from our experiences into something that we find pleasing to the palate.

We can change the water. We should change the water.

As a man thinketh, so is he. Who we are is what we tend to draw to us. What we put out into the universe, just like the boomerang, comes back to us.

If we want love, we need to be loving. If we desire trust, we should be trustworthy. If we want people to help us, we should be willing to help other people. If we want friends, we should be a friend.

We should be the song – melody, lyrics, tempo and genre – that we wish to sing and embody. We don’t have to dance to the song that we’re tired of listening to.