Is your talent bottled up?
Today I watched Episode 19, The Ballet. It aired on February 18, 1952.
In this episode, Ricky needs acts for his show, and Lucy wants in. He needs ballet dancers and comedians, so Lucy tries to take lessons in both—and it is hilarious. It ends with another classic mix-up. They end up needing Lucy for the ballet routine, but she arrives wearing her comedy outfit instead of her ballet costume. Needless to say, craziness ensues.
The one thing that struck me about this episode was when Lucy said to Ricky, “I have all this talent bottled up inside me, and you are sitting on the cork.”
Ricky doesn’t see Lucy as talented, but she does—and she believes it with her whole heart. In many of the episodes, you see her passion and determination to get into Ricky’s shows.
How many times has someone told you that you weren’t good enough, even though what you wanted to do was flowing through you and you felt you had to keep moving forward?
How many times do we listen to these gatekeepers and shut down what we are most passionate about?
This happened once in my life, and I will always remember it. I wanted badly to be a makeup artist, and I was taking small jobs and getting good at it. But many people around me asked me why I would want to do that. They told me it wasn’t what I had gone to school for. It wasn’t me, and it wasn’t a stable job.
And I hate to say it, but I listened.
I went down a completely different path. I went into science. At the time, it broke my heart, but I was young, and I listened to people I thought knew more than I did.
I love science. I really do. I wouldn’t actually change anything if I could, because I love the life I have and the beautiful gifts I received on this path.
But I have also learned not to listen to people who tell me I shouldn’t do something because it isn’t me.
I know who I am.
I do not need someone else to tell me who I am or what I should do.
After many years, I finally have the strength and belief in my inner guidance to pursue this new path—using creativity to help others hear their intuition so they can make better choices in their lives.
That feels aligned.
I feel like I had everything bottled up inside me for so long, while other people’s expectations and opinions sat firmly on the cork. Eventually, I realized that no one else was sitting on the cork anymore. I was holding it in place myself.
Now, after a lot of inner work, the cork is gone, and everything is flowing.
I feel a sense of joy and relief as my authentic energy moves through me and I allow myself to be me.
For once in my life, I am me.
All of me.
Not part of me sometimes, but all of me, all the time.
And that is such a blessing.
No more bottles for me.
