Every now and then a person is born that is very much alike all of us but very outstanding at the same time. Someone with a message. Someone on a mission who is destined to make this world a better place. A rare and unique person that holds a torch that won’t get you burned but only enlightened and warmed.
But what happens if we meet someone like that? Have you ever? How did that feel and what did you think? Have you been touched, moved, even shaken? Did it brighten your horizon? Shift perspective? Or have you run in fear?
In the book of my life I have encountered only one such person. I realized immediately that I was looking into the eyes of someone unlike any other. It left me shaken and breathless but in a most peaceful place. It made me think and look at life from uncommon angles.
It was so intense and also intimidating that I became very insecure and felt as if I had to move through a firestorm, first. By now I know I needed that to be able to evolve. And I know how to go on down that path that at the end of the day will make me leave the world as someone better than who I was when I came.
But, of course, this isn’t so easy as it now may sound. These rare persons, they polarize and scare the hell out of many. And even if people are not afraid of the person, it is a typical human trait to fear change and everything that is strange to us, everything we can’t explain at once. So meeting someone like that many just walk away and so miss the chance for change just because it’s easier and feels safer.
But still you can’t ignore someone so unique. You can’t look the other way and move on as if there was nothing. Being rare means to stand out. Standing out means to be noticed. So, that leaves only two alternatives to choose from: deny and fight or take a bow.
I didn’t feel I had a choice. I was so fascinated, so drawn in that I simply couldn’t turn the other way. I had to follow as if that person were a magnet with a pole that fit mine. It was as if not I choose the path to walk but the path choose me.
This was no easy way. I tripped along a stony road. My life all of a sudden seemed to be a building that was taken apart, a puzzle that was destroyed and then the pieces put back together wrongly. I lost a lot and couldn’t see what I was gaining. I felt disoriented and lost out at sea. I didn’t know myself anymore, I had to get to know me again. And this was frightening.
It took a while but finally I realized something fundamental:
Just like there are people who bring out the worst in us, you are very lucky if life offers you the chance to meet that one person who holds the capacity to bring out the best in you. Don’t let it pass, grab it with both hands. It’s worth it.