We step onto a path that determines our destination with a single statement. Often spoken without awareness, they give our live direction.

“I can’t draw” said when we are a child will keep us away from any adventure that takes us in that direction.

Today, I’m thinking about all the ways I’m hearing my young grandchildren define the paths they will travel and those they will pass by. I’m wishing I could shine a stunning, bright light on their possibilities, so they would dare to continue exploring what they are telling themselves they can’t do.

I know they would discover unrecognized interests, talents, and passions.

I know they are making their life smaller because of an experience that made them feel small. Embarrassed. Overwhelmed. Uncomfortable.

I know their statement is not necessarily so, and they are embracing a belief that will limit them in the years to come.

All this musing is making me ask myself which paths I’ve avoided because, at one time, I declared myself incapable of traveling them. My grandchildren are helping me see that my beliefs are very likely colored by my childhood perspective. Or how I viewed the world in my teens. What I believed about life in my early adult years.

And the wonderful thing about this time in my journey is feeling unencumbered by the expectations that used to push, nudge, and even hold me captive. I’m going to start being aware of what I say I can’t do. What a vision quest that will be! I’ll get to look more closely at what’s keeping my world small and see if that’s what I still want.

Maybe, this is the key that keeps life expanding. Growing, Intriguing. Instead of becoming a reflection of ‘what I can’t do’, I’ll be exploring uncharted landscapes of being.

Jeanne McElvaney     Author     Energy Healer