Introduction

Welcome to the Loved Called Gifted Podcast this is your place to come for musings about spirituality identity and purpose.
I’m your host Catherine Cowell.

So before we get going properly with the Loved Called Gifted podcast, it would be a good idea I though to set the scene and tell you a bit about what to expect, and what the podcast it about.
The aim really is that the podcast will do what it says on the tin, it will explore what it means to say that we are all Loved, Called, and Gifted, and will give us opportunities to think about how we can live more and more in the reality of that truth.
Cards on the table, I’m a Christian, and as a Christian I believe that a fundamental truth is that there is a divine love a the centre of the universe, and that we can all ultimately identify - derive our sense of identity and worth from the truth that we are loved.
If you are not a person of faith then that might not your reference point, but I think that we all have a sense that everyone, every single person is precious, however we understand that, and however we would express it, that is a shared sense ‘that every human being inherently has value’, is something that we all hold in common. I think in particular we get that sense of life and of people individuals being precious, particularly at the beginning and end of life. I’m just thinking about the preciousness that there is in a new baby being born, the deep love that that child’s parents will have for them, and also the great grief that we have when we loose somebody who is loved and who is precious to us. So in both the beginning and the end of life I think we all get that sense that everyone is precious, we all have worth and value, and we all inherently know that really actually our being gives us value and preciousness before we even do anything. If you think about a new born baby, they haven’t actually contributed anything to the world or the economy at the point when they are loved and adored. So we are all loved, we all know that our being is valuable, and I think we have a particular sense of being reminded of that, some of us during lockdown, I know that for some people that period of time was just incredibly busy, but for others of us we were kind of brought back to a space where there wasn’t very much to do, and we were simply being, and there was a sense for many people that in that slowing down there was a reminder that there is more to life than the stuff that we do. However we all also gain purpose from the things that we do. We are called or drawn to certain things to make a difference in the world. There are things that excite us and give us energy, and we all have gifts, talents, personality traits, experiences - all things that uniquely equip us to make a contribution in the world.

In case you are curious maybe it would be helpful to tell you a bit about me. So I am a spiritual director, I am also a life coach. I really enjoy facilitating and nurturing spaces where people can come as they are, bring their whole selves to a place with a conversation without fear of judgement, spaces where people are free to explore what they think and what they feel and who they are. I am also the adopted mother of a couple of boys, and I have in my experiences as an adoptive parent, I have seen what it is to live with the legacy of … trauma, actually … and the difficulties that that brings, and that has given me some more insights into really identity and some of the difficulties and the hiccups that we all sometimes face in life.

So these themes of lovedness, calledness, giftedness run through everything that I do both in my kind of professional, if you want to call it that, life, and also in my calling as a mother. I think these are fundamental themes that we all find ourselves encountering in our journey through life, and I find them endlessly fascinating. That question about how do live more deeply in the truth that we are precious inherently inherently, that we don’t need to strive to become worth something. How do we connect with the divine? Because that is one of the ways that we really link into that sense that we are precious. How do we live in the truth that we are in a society where we don’t automatically give people, on a societal level, we don’t automatically give people value simply for being. There is the phenomena isn’t there, that people are labelled by what they do, by what they contribute to the world, sort of the quiz show phenomenon, everybody is introduced with a name and a profession or a role. And there is that question isn’t there about what do you hold onto when you don’t have a profession to put after your name. Then there all those interesting things about how do you take that journey towards discovering your passion and your calling, and the gifts that will help you to get there. I am also really interested in the barriers that there are within us and around us to all these things, so we will be uncovering and exploring some of those in some episodes. So I think there is lots to explore.

I first used the term ‘Loved Called Gifted’ as the title of a course that I created alongside my colleague Sean Kennedy, that course is now available online at lovedcalledgifted.com it is also available to run in person, whether you want to do that yourself, or whether you would like somebody to come and facilitate it, and you can contact us on the website at lovedcalledgifted.com if you would like to find out more about that.

So one of the purposes of this podcast actually, is to explore some of the themes from that course in more detail. There is lots to explore beyond that as well, so we will be riffing around these themes, sometimes in conversation with people who know a bit about it, sometimes people sharing their stories and their wisdom, probably some more reflective conversations, so I am expecting that this will be a really eclectic mix. I have already recorded some episodes; there is a conversation with Sean Kennedy about identity and life experiences and how those impact on our ability to feel loved; we have a chat with someone called Rachel about the challenges of living with mental health difficulties, and how she has found her way to a job that she absolutely loved; there is an episode where I am talking about some of the myths about calling, that Christians in particular sometimes find themselves tripping over; just planning at the moment some conversations with my friend Polly, who is absolutely passionate about how understanding personality can help us to understand both ourselves and one another; and just this week I recorded a session with somebody called Lizelle about spiritual direction and how that has helped her on her spiritual journey.

So I hope that there is going to be some stuff in there that is going to be of interest to you, I am hoping that you will find some inspiration and some food for thought, so welcome to the podcast. You are always welcome to get in touch, I would be really interested to hear your thoughts, maybe you have some knowledge or a story to share, or if you would just like to say what you think. If you are interested in the course, or if you would just like to get in touch you can go to lovedcalledgifted.com and I really hope that you enjoy the podcast and get something out of it, and of cause if you don’t there are lots of other people doing other podcasts that you are bound to find fascinating.

Hope you enjoyed this episode of the Loved Called Gifted podcast. If you’d like to get in touch you can e-mail lovedcalledgifted@gmail.com, you can find a transcript of this podcast at lovedcalledgifted.com and that is also the place to go if you are interested in the Loved Called Gifted course, or if you would like to find out about spiritual direction or coaching.

Thank you for listening.

[Theme music “Nice View” by Crowander, produced by David Szesztay CC 2019, please visit crowander.com for more information. File accessed at freemusicarchive.org and used under creative commons: non-commercial with attribution].