Emily Romrell

Estimated Reading Time 9 Minutes

Hey You! I’m Emily Romrell and this is The Vibrant Life Podcast. I’ve had a good week. I hope you have too. And I hope the next few minutes together will lift us all up moving forward. Even if I don’t know you personally, I always feel like I’m chatting with a friend and I feel lucky to share in a part of your day.

Another great thing to celebrate is that the podcast now has over 500 downloads! The specific number is 524 as of the time I’m recording this episode. The momentum is growing and I love it. Please, My Friends, take a moment to share the show with your friends and family and let’s continue to build this community. If you really want to make my day, please subscribe to the podcast on iTunes and leave a quick review. Every person counts!

Let’s take a moment to consider the world we live in. It’s a scary place full of stress and anxiety. As I just typed these words and thought about the state of things, I literally took a deep breath and held it in for a couple of seconds. I physically felt myself tense up. I don’t want to focus on this point too deeply, but the last couple of years have been insane with the covid pandemic, civil unrest, natural disasters, you name it.

There are some things that we just can’t control in life and it’s important to recognize that. It doesn’t help anyone to worry about stuff you have no power over. But it’s just as important to avoid complacency and take action when we are able to do something. We all just need to live the famous serenity prayer: “God grant me the Serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference.”

I think a lot of our problems personally and globally are exacerbated because we live in a consumer-driven culture. Society encourages us to take more often than we give. Life becomes centered around “the next big thing.”

Living is more convenient in so many ways now, more than ever before. We want things quick, easy, and we want a lot of them. If you’re hungry go to the nearest drive-through. Got a random question? Get the answer in seconds on the internet. Feeling bored? Binge-watching favorite shows is a thing now. Don’t get me wrong. I am a fan of all of it. I love a good drive-through burger. Googling random facts is my favorite. And let me tell ya, I’ve binge-watched my share of Star Trek episodes.

The point is that it’s easy to over-indulge. We find ourselves stuck in too much downtime. We get complacent and comfortable. And when we’re complacent and comfortable, we are more susceptible to negative influences in the world around us. We lose our inner drive for growth and personal development. Our motivation to make the world around us better is lessened. That wise old saying has it right, “Life begins at the end of your comfort zone.”

I can’t say it enough in this podcast episode. If you’re looking for the balance between principles of duality, you need three things. 1)Timing, which means recognizing the right moments when they come but also having balance in the way you spend your time each day. 2) Opposition, we need a force pushing against us to develop strength and endurance. 3)Duality, we need contrast and a frame of reference in order to compare to give meaning to our experiences. These are key tools to help you live your most vibrant life.

Being a consumer is a wonderful thing. I want to make that clear. Being a consumer is fun and we get a lot of pleasure from what we consume. As humans, we need food to live and good food is a pleasure that I don’t want to live without. We are miraculous machines and we need fuel to function. We need rest and periods of downtime to regain energy and rejuvenate our minds, hearts, bodies, and souls.

So we just need to be smart about it. Once we understand that being a consumer is just part of being human. The next step is to make wise decisions about what we consume, right? A burger every once in a while is fabulous. But good physical health is all about nutrition and getting those veggies. Similarly, managing our mental and emotional diets is critical. Watching tv is wonderful. But good mental and emotional health is about being mindful of what our brains and hearts consume. Read more personal development books. Connect with someone more deeply in your day-to-day life. Spend time learning new skills. Go on more adventures. Maybe even spend a few minutes listening to this podcast each week! Collect things and cultivate habits that lead to your best life. Be a wise consumer.

Is that Turn, Turn, Turn song still in the back of your mind? Good, because there are times to be a consumer, AND there are times to be a creator. I don’t care who you are or how unimaginative you think you might be. Every soul on the planet is a creator. Deep down in the bones of who we are, we need to make contributions to the world in order to live a meaningful life.

The miraculous thing is that the ways to make a contribution are endless. And each of our individual contributions is special and unique because each individual human is special and unique. In Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy wrote, “I think…if it is true there are as many minds as there are heads, then there are as many kinds of love as there are hearts.” And I’m not Tolstoy, but I would add that there are as many ways to make a difference as there are souls who create.

Recently, I’ve been going to an informal girls’ night once a week with some friends in my church. I am honestly not a fan of big groups because I tend to get anxious. But it’s been great to just visit and connect with people, especially since we’ve all been isolated during Covid. The magic happens because each person in the group helps to create an atmosphere of fun and friendship. Each personality brings something special. And during our last visit, we worked on a service project that created a way to help others. So here’s to you ladies, thanks for creating some awesome Wednesday nights. Also, I have to give a shoutout to our host, Nancy, who has created a safe and welcoming space for us.

Sometimes being a creator is very literal. We might bake some yummy bread, paint a beautiful picture, compose a song, build a house, write up documents for work, or grow a garden.

Sometimes being a creator is more metaphysical. We can create an atmosphere of love and trust. We can inspire others with our thoughts and actions. We can build friendships.

Ok Peeps, have you been able to spot the cycle in the relationship between consumers and creators? Everything we create is made to be consumed in some way. Duality, right? We eat bread. We meditate and dream on beautiful works of art. We open our hearts and connect with others.

One thing I’m learning about life is that it’s made up of cycles; Cycles within cycles within more cycles. There are so many patterns that repeat which allow us to learn and grow. When I think about this, I imagine the inner workings of clocks. Have you ever seen the inside parts of a clock? It’s full of circular gears that all connect together very intricately. And when it’s all put together, the result is amazing.

I’m not the first person to ponder on these ideas. Issac Newton and his fellow great thinkers came up with the Clockwork Universe Theory. It compares the universe to a clock wound up by God and then left alone to tick away, as a perfect machine, with its gears spinning and turning in line with the laws of physics.

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I’m completely on board with the analogy so far it shows how intricately everything was set up by God. How one thing builds off another and cycles connect with cycles to become gears in our lives that move us forward. I’ve talked about upward spirals before, but it’s that same idea. We can learn to understand different patterns and cycles in our lives. When we move forward, we spiral upwards towards our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ.

Where I don’t agree with the clockwork universe theory is that I don’t think God just created this beautiful magical world and just left it alone. I believe Heavenly Father is deeply invested and interested in us personally and in the world. Because Heavenly Father is the Ultimate Creator, right? And Creators make things they love. They make things they want to keep and use. And guess what, my beautiful friends, We are the ultimate creations made by God.

There’s a beautiful children’s book called You Are Special by Max Lucado. It’s a story about wooden people who spend their days judging each other and handing out stars and dots. If you are beautiful, or talented, or intelligent, you get a star. But if you aren’t good, looking, or talented, etc you get a dot. The main character, Punchinello, is a small wooden person who is covered in dots and who never gets a star. Punchinello is extremely sad and discouraged. But one day he meets another wooden person who has no stickers at all. She is simply herself without anything extra. This new friend tells Punchinello about Eli, the woodcarver. Punchinello decides he has to see Eli for himself. The talk they have together is tender:

Punchinello, every day I’ve been waiting and hoping you would come to see me,” Eli explained. Punchinello looked up at him and said, “I came because I met a sweet Wemmick girl who had no marks.” Eli said, “I know. Lucia told me about you.” So Punchinello asked, “Why don’t the stickers stay on Lucia?” Eli said, “Because she has decided that what I think is more important than what anyone else thinks. The stickers only stick if you let them.” Punchinello looked puzzled and said, “What?” Eli said, “Yes, the stickers only stick if they matter to you. The more you trust My love, the less you will care about those stickers.” But Punchinello said, “I’m not sure I really understand. What you are saying?” The maker said, “You will, but it will take some time. You’ve got a lot of marks. So for now, just come to see me every day and let me remind you how much I care about you.” Eli lifted Punchinello off the bench and set him on the floor. “Now remember,” Eli said as the Wemmick walked out the door. “You ARE special because I made you, and I don’t make mistakes.”

When we think about being a creator, sometimes we forget that each of us is also a magnificent creation. Heavenly Father gave each of us unique gifts, talents, and abilities. Here’s the last quote of the day, I promise. Hans Urs von Balthasar said, “What you are is God’s gift to you, what you become is your gift to God.” You are God’s ultimate creation, and your life is your ultimate creation. What are you going to do with it? Circles and cycles, I’m tellin’ ya.

One of my favorite hymns is How Great Thou Art. You can listen to a beautiful rendition of the song in the show notes. There is rarely a day that I don’t look up in awesome wonder at all of the works our Heavenly Father’s hands have made.

So, the challenge this week is to examine what you are consuming in your life. Are you filling your body and soul with edifying things? What about your creator side? Are you giving back to the people in your life? Are you building good things for yourself and for the world? What small steps might you take to move forward on the upward spiral? Nobody’s perfect, but we can all contribute and make a difference in our own way. When we do that… we’ll have a vibrant life.

Take care, My Friends…