The most important person in the whole of creation.

Or, What I Learned from Donna Noble

So I like Doctor Who. Of course, by “like” I mean “adore to the point of being obsessive” because I’m kind of an all or nothing sort of woman, but I just like to think of that as being steadfast rather than unbalanced. There is a TARDIS mug on my desk and my alarm is Matt Smith kindly telling me to rise and shine and besides who doesn’t like a show with time travel and British accents?

I love everything about Doctor Who, but mostly I love the pure creative genius locked inside of it. It’s alive with ideas and hints of ideas and twists and turns that lead your mind to this place you would never have thought to go to and it reveals something to you. It opens a window to humanity and shines a light on your face, brightening your entire world even if only for a moment. It’s gorgeous. It’s inspiration. It’s everything I wish I had thought of brought to life in front of me. I watch with a smile on my face and pure joy in my heart, and I don’t even care if that sounds ridiculous. I think everyone should have something that fills their soul to bursting; something they love without apology.

And this show, this brilliant show, gives me little pieces of magic that make me stop. You have to stop, because within the most simple of words are a lifetime’s worth of meaning, and you have to pause and breathe them in and hold them in your heart for just a little while until they become a sort of truth. They color the way you look at the world, the colors become richer and the world becomes deeper, like something you could fall into. You want to fall into them because they are so alive with meaning.

There are two lines nestled in the middle of the entire series that I think speak truth into the soul of every person in human history. Two lines that seem so obvious, but are often forgotten. We’ve misplaced the truth of the words, allowing them to become tarnished and tainted and battered as the dark side of life whispers lies in our ears and hardens our hearts. Forgetting is easier in some ways, because then we can’t be disappointed by a world that has spent centuries telling us differently. Spoken from one companion to another, they read:

Donna: What am I supposed to do? I’m nothing special. I mean, I— I’m not… I’m nothing special. I’m a temp! I’m not even that. I’m nothing.
Rose: Donna Noble, you’re the most important woman in the whole of creation.

Read that again, out loud, and know it to be true.

The most important person in the whole of creation.

Allow that to sink into your skin, rush through your veins, and fill your ears. Allow those words to write themselves on your heart and become your truth. Believe in them today and tomorrow and on the days when the world tells you otherwise. Remember them for all eternity.

Because they are true. Even in the moments when we feel useless and worthless, like we are nothing, nothing could be further from the truth. On the days when life knocks us to our knees and we wash the dirt from our hands with our own tears, loathe to stand up and try again, remember that even in that moment, you are invaluable. You are worth everything. You are gorgeous, your tears washing the pain from your eyes and leaving them fierce, drenched with purpose and shining light.

We are often told, I think, of our own insignificance. We are taught that we are one among billions, a single star in an infinite galaxy. To think of ourselves is selfish. We are warned against arrogance and conceit, handed chains we must wear, binding us to the idea that there is nothing about us that makes us special. We are all the same. What could the whole of humanity and history want with just one single person? How could the one outshine the many?

We’ve made our self worth into a contest, but one that no one can win. Because we’ve declared that to value ourselves is to devalue the rest. We have lost ourselves in a mess of chaos, believing that we are unimportant. We are born in the miracle of life and then we are told this happens all the time. All over the world, hundreds upon hundreds of new lives come into this world, and we are just one more grain of sand.

We forget that our mere existence, the very fact that we are alive and breathing and leaving our smudgy handprints all over this world, means everything. There is no other like you and never will be ever again. In the whole of creation, from the first breath of life to the final dying star, you are the only you. You make choices and create and speak love and beauty into a world in a way that no one else can. There is no other person in human history with a heart as beautiful and loving and kind and generous and wonderful as your own. You are a masterpiece.

Because God placed you here, in exactly this moment for a purpose that perhaps only He knows, and that means something. In His infinite wisdom and power, He crafted you from His divine imagination and unfathomable love, taking care to make you into the most special person in the entire universe. He could have made you into anything He wanted, anything at all, but He chose to create you exactly as you are. He gave you a soul and a story, and they are amazing. They are everything. You must tell it like only you can.

You are meant to be here, you see. You are destined for fantastic and brilliant things, things only you can do. So those voices that tell you that you are nothing, that you aren’t important, that you aren’t special, that you are useless or worthless or insignificant, they are wrong. They are so very very wrong. Because locked away in the tips of your fingers and the shine of your eyes and tilt of your smile is the power to change the world. Every breath and step you take changes our history in a way that only you can. Without your feet on this planet, everything would be different; a star missing from a constellation, a color absent from an artist’s palette, a missing chapter.

You, sweet soul, are most important person in the whole of creation.

Believe those words and change the world.

Thank you for reading! And maybe (definitely) follow me on Twitter >> @cassiclerget.

I’m pretty entertaining.