On the importance of being oneself

This morning I received an e-mail from a priest of the Diocese who is rather older than me; he is a learned priest and I always enjoy visiting with him. At the end of the e-mail, he wrote:

Thank you, Daren, for being Daren! It gives us old men encouragement to see your enthusiasm.

I'm not quite sure what he means by the encouragement I give the old timers, but I am grateful for the compliment and for the encouragement he gives me simply by being who he is.

I've been reading my way through Susan Boyle's autobiography, The Woman I Was Born to Be: My Story (when I shared this bit of information the other day with the Diocesan archivist, she reminded me that I am, indeed, a nerd).

In it she has many worthwhile observations, including this one:

One of the great pleasures of my new life is the fact that I seem to make people happy. I haven't worked out quite why this is, but it's a very nice and surprising feeling, so I've decided that it's probably best not to over-analyse, but just enjoy (271).

I know what she means, and I think she's right.

In his wisdom, the Lord has created each of us with our different personalities, talents, energies and interests. Let each of us strive to be who the Lord has made us to be, so that, cooperating with his grace, we can bring to joy and happiness to the lives of others.