Are you a Geode?

Maybe you can look back to one of your science classes in elementary school and remember the lessons in rocks. B-O-R-I-N-G......If your eyes glazed over and still do at this subject, you are not alone. Unless it is a precious gem sitting in a lovely 18K gold setting, then I am not much interested.  Until, that is, I found out about geodes.

What is a geode?  It is a round or oval ugly brown or gray rock, not much to look at, some small, some big.  But I really want to own one.  If it is just plain and ugly, then why would I want to have one of my own?  Because it isn't what is on the outside that makes these rocks so intriguing.  When they are broken or cut in half, their mystery is revealed. Hollow in the center but with wonderful crystals around the inside shell, they become beautiful once opened.

Like the real geodes in nature, there are geodes among us of the human kind, people that you take for granted or seldom give a second thought.  There are those of us that come into this world, shining and lively; these are the ones that things come easy to, who are successful in everything they do, that make things look so easy to the naked eye.  Then there are people that are just diamonds in the rough; they just need to be cut and polished.  And then there are others that no matter how much you look at them, all you can see is gray and dull.  You know some of them, I am sure. But the funny thing is, we never know what these souls could offer us if only we could see them on the inside, just like a geode.

Susan Boyle is a geode. You remember Susan Boyle.  She walked on stage to audition for Britain's Got Talent and there she stood for all the world to see her in her dowdiness. According to Wikipedia, Susan Boyle "was the youngest of four brothers and six sisters. Born when her mother was 47,  Boyle was briefly deprived of oxygen during the difficult birth and was later diagnosed as having learning disabilities. Boyle says she was bullied as a child and was nicknamed "Susie Simple" at school. Boyle never married, and she dedicated herself to care for her aging mother until she died in 2007 at the age of 91. Boyle has a reputation for modesty and propriety, admitting during her first appearance on Britain's Got Talent that she had "never been married, never been kissed"."

So when we looked at this person on stage, we were all unbelievers, hoping this poor woman wouldn't embarrass herself too badly.  Ah, but then she opened her mouth and began to sing and in that instance, before all the world, the geode was cracked open, the true beauty was revealed and Susan Boyle's life was forever changed.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lp0IWv8QZY

"In Britain, Susan's debut album was recognized as the fastest selling UK debut album of all time selling 411,820 copies I Dreamed a Dream also outsold the rest of the top 5 albums combined in its first week. In the U.S., the album sold 701,000 copies in its first week, the best opening week for a debut artist in over a decade.. It topped the Billboard chart for six straight weeks and.... it narrowly failed to become the best-selling album of 2009, with sales of 3,104,00". Wikipedia

Most of us are geodes in some sense or another.  And just like Susan Boyle, what hidden talents are you hiding?  What jewels are inside of you?  Can you take the hammer and break the outer shell for yourself? Is there someone you know that is a geode just waiting for someone to see their inner beauty?

So there you have it.  Go grab the figurative hammer, be it a paintbrush or pen, microphone, camera or kitchen utensil.  Break the geode and let the world see who you truly are.