Every warm morning, I pull back the curtains, swing open both sides of the French doors, and welcome in the day.
In effect, saying, “I am open for business.”
The sunflowers and zinnias outside our front window raise their faces to the sun and declare, “I am open for business.”
The butterflies, birds, and bees happily obliged by visiting them to feed and pollinate, providing a beautiful scene for me to watch.
When my feeders are empty, the birds ask loudly, “Why aren’t you open for business? Your clients are here, and we are hungry.”
They are particularly impatient with my tardiness when their youngsters are sitting with them, demanding immediate gratification.
I enjoy reality shows that revolve around creativity, such as cooking, designing, or dancing, because contestants must recognize and accept who they are and open themselves up to their business.
A contestant said, “I want to do what I was put on this earth to do.”
He said “yes” to his gift and his heartfelt desire to share it.
He had decided to stop allowing any belief in the idea of “no” to keep him from swinging open his doors, raising his face to the sun, or filling his feeders.
He was open for business.
There is another side to being open for business.
It is being opened for the wrong kind of business.
Every year on August 8th, I pause momentarily and remember the day of 8-8-88. When I look back on the events of my life surrounding that day, I know I was open for business, but the wrong kind of business.
Because that year, I was unknowingly in the business of fulfilling a sense of lack and need within myself. Although I remained good at what I did, I served the wrong kind of clients and relationships.
Every year since then, I have been increasingly grateful that each trip around the sun has brought greater clarity to what kind of business I want to be in, and each year, I get better at letting go of any belief of lack or need.
Knowing the gifts we share and who is appropriate for that sharing is essential for choosing the right kind of business—one that serves the whole of mankind and nature.
We are all in business.
We are all in the business of expressing our unique being through our individual gifts and talents.
It doesn’t matter if we appear to be running a business, not working, or working for others; we are still in the business of expressing and sharing those gifts.
Our clients are not just those who buy from us but the people whose lives we touch every day, whether they are strangers, neighbors, or family.
It doesn’t matter what we do to express and share ourselves.
We can knit, plumb, build, draw, sew, or be mothers, fathers, accountants, doctors, cooks, gardeners, writers, creators, designers, or planners.
We are all in a variety of businesses.
When the blue jay and squirrel call to me to tell me that the neighbor’s cat is in the yard, I am in the business of protection. When lunchtime arrives, I am in the business of being a chef.
What matters is that I become present and willing in every activity and every form of business that I am doing.
It’s harder to run a good business when we don’t acknowledge what we are good at doing, or are unwilling to share it, or are afraid to fail, or act out of lack and need.
It’s easy to run a good business when we recognize that it is simply a matter of swinging open the doors of our hearts to the warmth, raising our faces to the love of the Divine, and filling our feeders full of the gifts that we have been freely given as the Idea of Mind.
We do all this so that others may benefit from who we are and what we do.
How are you sharing your unique gifts? What kind of business are you in? I’d love to know!
All of this is about becoming a Perception Master. Would you like more help in becoming one? The last live Perception Master class is almost here. Find out more here.