Stay Connected : Cattails and Purpose

Driving by the lowlands throughout Northern Wisconsin you’ll often pass patches of cattails: For those new to the area they may not notice or see them as interesting/unusual not understanding the purpose (purposes) their value. Those knowing the cattail are different – For a basket weaver the thought is ‘Oh I would love to make a basket out of that’ – For a seamstress it maybe ‘hmm that fluff would make some nice stuffing for a toy or filling for pads’ – For another it maybe a quick snack or a starchy treat –
For still others it is medicine.

So, it is for us. When others first meet us, they do not know our depth, our gifts, or our value. Some don’t bother to look beyond the surface, others will. Sometimes we have been ignored or criticized so long that we do not know our selves – our gifts – our value – our purpose. They are buried in our depths.

Like the cattail we often have multiple gifts to offer our family, our community. And like the cattail we may need another to first identify our gifts before we can step confidently forward offering them to others. We may need another to help bring who we truly are up from the depths (not with anger and rage, but, with love and respect). It maybe a friend or someone we work with that looks at us and says ‘Wow, you really are good with children’ or ‘Man that soup is better then anything I ever eaten’ or ‘Hey, you sure are a strong leader’. Or it may be a counselor or therapist that through their questions help us rediscover our gifts, our purpose – ‘So, I hear you say…? Do you see…? How are you using your gifts now? How could you use your gifts’’?

We may never truly understand our value – we don’t need to. We need to be able to know and offer our gifts; fulfilling our purpose. When offering our gifts, we will know what it is to be Full.