Written for Nourishing Storm’s monthly theme blog.  Find out what these wonderful folks are up to here.

What is power? I think I am starting to understand. Power is so multidimensional and infinitely expansive. The universe has its power over our world, our world has its power over us and we are born with a power all our own. It is all connected. We are connected to all the powers that be yet only in control of that piece which is ours. It is ours and ours alone. But are we ready to own it?

Before we can own our power we must know our power. To get to know our power takes some living; we need to experience our power. Taking ownership can require all the strength we have at times. Are we strong enough? We can’t ever be sure of the greatness of our strength if it has never been tested. And so we must live. We must struggle. We must lose and grieve at times to find our strength. The greatest strength is to go on after losing, to let old wounds heal and to allow love back into our lives.

We can’t do that if we give our power away to the world by blaming it for our troubles. We can’t ever love with our whole hearts if refuse to let go of our pain. And we can’t reclaim our stolen power if we are not willing to take it back or if we deny it was ever ours.

So we live and we learn if we truly are strong enough. I believe we are. It is only a matter of knowing it. If we can carry our troubles around all this time, we most certainly have the strength to live an empowered life. But will we? Do we loosen our grasp on our fears, our self-doubt and our blame? Will we free our hands to grab hold of our power?

It is a choice. And the beauty of this choice is that it is a perpetual one. Each moment presents a new opportunity to choose whether or not to own our power. Even if we have decided in the past it was easier to give it away. Even if we chose not to use our power before because we were afraid of what it could do. We all have been in a place where it was much easier to complain or to hurt than to change or to heal. But thankfully we do not have to stay in these places. There is always time to change. And once we grab hold of our lives, we come to know how truly powerful we are.

 Our power is as unlimited as the power of the entire universe. It all comes from the same infinite source. When we tap into our power, we tap into the power of life itself. Here is where it can get tricky. This power that is ours to have is so great it can change everything. Sometimes that realization has us grabbing back onto our old familiar fears. When we hold our fears we don’t merely let go of our power, we consent to letting our fears guide our way. Our fears tend to lead us in directions that get us nowhere. Inevitably we realize we want to go somewhere. We begin to trust our strength and recognize our own authority in our lives.

So we have our strength and have made our choice to use it. Is that enough to own our power? It is so long as we understand this power was, is and always will be ours to own and that once we decide to take ownership, we alone are responsible for it. Power must be tempered with accountability to be truly great. We can shine our light as bright as the sun all day every day. It is our God-given right to do so. But to know we shined as true as the sun is to know the light we shine is unmistakably our own.

So what do I think power is? Power is taking charge of ourselves. It is choosing to live with our whole hearts fearlessly open to what we love. Over and over again. It is a persistence of character. It is a commitment to being our best and truest selves in each moment. And if we stumble, it is vowing to do better next time. Living an empowered life is perhaps the greatest gift we can offer this world. Truly. It is what we were born to do.