Patches and Badges

I was once a Brownie and then a Junior in the Girl Scouts of America. One of my favorite things about being a Girl Scout, next to camping, was earning patches. Forever in need of approval, these small round embroidered symbols of "I did good" decorated my Troop 837 sash. I couldn't wait for the ceremony where I was awarded my next hard earned patch.

Each patch represented a piece of who I was. A camper. Safety conscious. A helper. I was proud when I wore my green uniform to school on our meeting days, flashing that sash to anyone who glanced my way. "See who I am!", that sash would exclaim.

My next identity patch was a high school varsity letter covered with little gold pins representing each year I was on the varsity basketball, volleyball, and softball teams. Pins for Captain of the team. Pins for All-Conference. A medal for being an honors student. I wore that varsity letter jacket all the time.  "See who I am!", that jacket would exclaim.

Today I wear a plastic identification badge around my neck all day, proving I am a State Employee.  Wherever I go people know I am a government employee. "See who I am!", that identification badge exclaims.

But the most important of these are the ones we place on ourselves. They don't come as a pin or a badge or a patch, but as behaviors we exhibit based on what we believe about ourselves. These define how we move through the world, the choices we make, the work we do, our relationships.

If we proudly display the patch of honor and self-confidence, we walk a path of integrity and purpose. If our badge is that of a gardener, we probably find ourselves gleefully playing in the dirt on our days off, planting and weeding and tending.

If we define ourselves as caretakers, we cannot find satisfaction in equality but only in neediness.

If we believe we are victims, we see ourselves as helpless and create our own personal prison, keeping others out and us in. We do not see our personal power, something I believe we are all born with.

If we believe we can make change, we reach out to others and create community and movements. We organize and rally. We energize.

If we believe we are vulnerable, we try to control. We don't feel safe.

These badges are as obvious as the ones on my Girl Scout sash. The are embroidered in our words and actions. The beautiful thing is we can earn whatever badge we want to by living with intention. We can visualize our lives to be whatever we want them to be and that is what they will become.

Our lives today are what we visualized yesterday. Are you satisfied?

Wanna earn a new badge? Believe you are what you want to be. Because, really you ARE that person. You just don't believed it yet. But if you can dream it, it is already there.

So what are you waiting for? DREAM! BELIEVE! I'll give you a ceremony for that new badge.