A little girl in Mexico yearned to help her family. Outside her bedroom window, grew a productive and beautiful fig tree. She gathered figs with great delight. She dared to be different, and instead of an ordinary lemonade stand, she set up a fig stand. Everyone passed by. No sale. With all her might, she started running after her prospective customers. “You must buy these figs. Five for three pesos. You won’t get a better deal, and your family needs them.” At the end of the day, a happy girl returned home 30 figs lighter, and 18 pesos richer; a significant amount for any 5-year old girl in 1989.
That single experience marked the start of her future and set her life in motion. Little did she know then the great importance the figs would offer her beyond that first day because each step to every prospective customer elicited passion, discovery, wisdom, humility, persistence, vulnerability, vision, and awareness; the eight pillars of a strong foundation that was to lead her through every trial, tribulation and exultation in her life. Without knowing its significance, 8 Fig Factors born that day set the story in motion that the whole world would hear.
Many of us walk around with a mentality of negative thoughts about our surroundings, our day, and ourselves. Why? What good is it doing? That little girl found the positive in her family situation, she went out to help her family, and in turn helped many more. By that one act, she has changed her personal outlook, her family’s outlook and the outlook of every new customer she acquired that day.
How did she do that? She showed up to serve, act with her heart, connect to people, and elevate the people around her by being positive, sharing her light, her smile, her energy, and her giving attitude. Despite the family’s hardship, she chose the positive route, found the beauty within herself and shared it with others. Jacqueline Ruiz-Camacho explains, “Rid yourself of bad mentality. Believe ‘I am 150% complete.’ Think positive. If you live in a small house and dream bigger, love that house. Thank that house because it is where your dreams are planted. When you sprinkle gratitude and positivity with those surrounding you, you receive so much beauty from the universe.
The experience with the figs became that little girl’s iconic story with every presentation she gave, and it was the foundation for her first book, The Fig Factor, based on her life experiences. Today, she has built her life on the 8 Fig Factors. She shares an abundance of positivity and beauty with the world. The universe listens, hears, speaks and continuously returns an abundance of blessings to her.
As we know, life has its difficult moments. Circumstances, people, events and emotions impact our days, but it’s how you approach those moments that help you find the beauty. Whether it is a bad mood, an argument, an illness, a loss or something else, finding beauty and positivity is possible. The first step is to accept it, “what is causing me to feel this way?” Analyze and identify it. Embrace the situation and the feelings. Become objective and call it like it is. Find the path needed to fix it. Then, fix it. It may require a conversation with someone to vet through it and heal the hurt. Maybe prayer, letting go or forgiveness will help mend it. Maybe time is required.
No matter how it happens, how it is fixed, the end result is to focus on finding the beauty in it. There is beauty in and around everything. Once you find the beauty, freedom endures. Your soul will be free to experience it and share your beauty and positivity with the universe.
It’s like the fig. The universe spoke again. The fig story came full-circle when a friend told that little girl, 24 years later, “a fig is the only fruit that has a flower on the inside. The fig is self-contained because everything it needs, including its beauty, is on the inside.”
Everything you need is inside you. Your core. Your heart. Your soul. Your beauty. This is where the 8 Fig Factors bloom. This is where the messages and symbols resonate from the universe. Listen. Hear. Let your flower within create an abundance of beauty for the whole world, and then, release it. Leave a legacy that makes the world a better place because you were in it.
Written by Cindy Tschosik | Cindy@SoConnectedLLC.com