As we saw last week, a Theme is a powerful concept:

Theme: an idea that recurs in or pervades a work of art or literature.  — or a life.

Have you considered what you want your theme to be, what you want people to notice about you?

Here are some very rough notes I am considering for this Sunday:

You must choose a theme and then nourish it.

nourish

1 provide with the food or other substances necessary for growth, health, and good condition :

2 keep (a feeling or belief) in one’s mind, typically for a long time : he has long nourished an ambition to bring the show to Broadway.

from Latin nutrire ‘feed, cherish.’

Any living thing that is not nourished dies. Look at natural history. The same applies to ideas.

What are you nourishing in yourself?

What in your self will you cherish? Feed?

Give your time and attention?

Is that what you want?

What you nourish will pervade your life.

What you nourish in yourself IS your Theme

Consider “Calamity Jane” – Gwendolyn’s nickname for someone she knows who is always complaining about her life.

The motivational speaker Earl Nightingale, wrote, Whatever we plant in our subconscious mind and nourish with repetition and emotion will one day become a reality.

Careful! Nourishing the things you want to have grow takes awareness. Being conscious. Making conscious choices. All day long.

Alan Alda: Laugh at yourself, but don’t ever aim your doubt at yourself. Be bold. When you embark for strange places, don’t leave any of yourself safely on shore. Have the nerve to go into unexplored territory.

Let your light shine! Let your Theme show!

Choose a theme for yourself and your life!

“Welcome every morning with a smile. Let your first hour set the theme of success and positive action that is certain to echo through your entire day. Today will never happen again. Don’t waste it with a false start or no start at all. You were not born to fail.” Og Mandino (American Essayist and Psychologist, 1923-1996)

Consider what you want to nourish in yourself as you choose your Theme

Sydney Smith, religious writer, 1800: To do anything in this world worth doing, we must not stand back shivering and thinking of the cold and danger, but jump in, and scramble though as well as we can.

Who and what supports that theme in your life?

We don’t need to completely change our lives. We don’t need to wear a sign. People will see it in us!

Peace Pilgrim: What we usually call human evolution is the awakening of the divine nature within us.

What is your theme? What will you present to the world? To the people in your life? This is the day… how will you spend it, who will you be?