“We are each gifted in a unique and important way. It is our privilege and our adventure to discover our own special light.”
Mary Dunbar.
The University for a gifted life…
Where unwrapping and finding your gift is your gift.
The mission:
Everyone can experience the possibility of finding their own transformative power as well as the courage to live a life based on their unique gift. Our mission is to empower you in the process of finding your gifts and unwrapping them for the world—and while doing so, to discover the amazing journey it holds.
The impact:
To make a difference in other people’s lives—those we have and have not yet touched. To learn and share the gift of life’s lessons while acknowledging the unique gifts in one another.
The story:
You know, in my journey to my own unique gift, I invested so much energy at the beginning in learning new things—and discovered that a lot of it was actually about remembering, reuniting, recovering, and unlearning.
Unlike a traditional university, where everything is about a life/action plan, discovering an “unwrapped gift” life requires immense trust in the unknown, an open heart, and an unwavering belief in our gift from the depths of our souls.
I have been lucky I haven’t traveled my unwrapping-my-gift journey alone; there have been people around me who believed in me before I believed in myself. Angels, the Holy Spirit, and God are always around me, surrounding me with love.
I received the gift of unwrapping gifts and didn’t know what it truly meant until now: To help others unlock their inner truth so they can follow the illuminated path on their transformative journey.
For years, we’ve been deceived about the meaning of gifts, thinking they are something external to us. In reality, a gift is right there at the essence of who we are, waiting patiently for us to acknowledge it, eager for the time we discover and share it. In fact, finding your gift and sharing it is the whole point.
My friend Blake once called me an “undiscovered diamond” and I looked around in disbelief, not getting what he was talking about. Now I know that he saw people as gifts, and because of this way of seeing, he was also a gift to others.
What’s a gift?
A gift is beyond what you do, how you do it, and how famous you are for doing it. A gift is pure; it has an essence that even if you aren’t ready to accept, you can still appreciate and know that it is real.
Yet because we have been deceived about what a gift is, we’ll look around for the gift and focus on wrapping it up tightly versus unwrapping it. True gifts are messy like unwrapped paper, just as wrinkles from old age, yet they are what add character to life.
A gift has a strong, powerful inner character, but to grasp it, we need to face it, and that’s scary because it goes deep into our sense of inner knowing and truth. The unwrapping is where you can find the real gift. It is in the unwrapping that we truly find and witness the essence of our gift. That’s what “finding your gifts” means.
So, our gift is in the unwrapping process. That’s what finding your gift means. It is the key to our gift that opens another’s gift, and it is in this sharing that our gifts expand and grow. And that is why I continue to unwrap mine because I know my gift will help others to unwrap theirs. Gifts are a unifying universal.
They offer a common language of inner truth that brings a deeper connection to all that life makes available to us. It is as if they were part of a perfect design that molds all of our life experiences into the truth of oneness.
When you speak to one another, gift to gift, there is a power of connection that transcends boundaries. I have seen it. I have experienced it in my workshops, retreats, and similar events.
What does finding your gifts look like?
The power of finding your gifts goes well beyond self toward connection, love for, and service to others. Yet most people want to skip past the unwrapping and go directly to the physical gift, never knowing that it is in the unwrapping that you find the real gift.
If you really want to live a gifted life, a life where you honor your purpose or calling, make the conscious decision to unwrap your gifts. The lessons you learn during your unwrapping are the foundation of your truth and your real gift.
While skipping the unwrapping part leaves you with a wrapped gift waiting for its discovery, unwrapping leaves you with the gift that you were longing for—and the one from which we all need to learn.
When the time comes for you to be ready to unwrap, you need to know that you’re not alone and that there are plenty of others just like you. On my own amazing journey, I’ve discovered a community of courageous women and men from all ages, occupations, and walks of life, who have dedicated their lives to unwrapping their gifts.
When you experience a community like this, your life simply can’t be the same. The journey begins when you alone decide, when you say I am going to live a gifted life to best honor and serve myself, my family, and my community.
See how it starts with yourself? Oh, the power in this decision to unwrap! Once you choose it, the world looks, feels, and is different. You change this perception that your gift is outside of you and realize that all along it has been inside of you, ready to be acknowledged, recognized, discovered, and loved. All you have to do is start the journey of finding your gifts.
It all begins with a choice… your choice!
You know, I really never understood the power of words, creation, collaboration, great ideas, visionary inventions, or inspiration, until now. I have the power of all of these and more, and for the first time, I feel such humility for having received this gift.
My hope for you is that one day you, too, find the same deep feeling of appreciation for your gift; as you receive it, so will you share it.
The magic of a gift is that it’s a combination of seeds planted in us and ready to bloom when the right season and time come in. It is in how we nurture the seeds; it’s in the investment of our time, soil, and upkeep, and how we position it all perfectly in the sun.
Just as when nurturing a child or a plant, what we put into it is what furthers a gift or enables it. And it all begins with a choice and the willingness to live a gifted life, to let others be part of our gift team, and to be open to the lessons we are here to learn even when it is hard to learn them.
It’s a gift that requires us to trust in ourselves and our intuition once again, a gift that asks us to share and move from a place of truth and courage every day. It’s a gift that moves us to believe in miracles and our divinity and that gives us the freedom to express it in our own unique way.
Summarizing…
I hope that you find the self-compassion and self-love that you need to move on from a place of judgment to one of reclaiming and living your gift. Most of the time, it was surprisingly unexpected, inspiring us to believe in something greater that we didn’t know we had inside of us.
The essence of finding your gifts is truth, and though we may think is hard, not living our truth is even harder. Remembering our truth is our gift to ourselves and the world. It is the foundation for meaning-filled lives and businesses that make a difference.
It is the legacy that we will leave in our own memory. When you live an unwrapped gift of life, you give me the gift of also living unwrapped.
With love,
Virginia