Be
You
“To be
nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best, night and
day, to make you everybody else means to fight the hardest battle
which any human being can fight and never stop fighting.”
e.e.
cummings
Once you know who you
are, you can take all sorts of risks—saying what you really think,
acknowledging your feelings, asking probing questions, loving who you
love, refusing to say you believe something simply because it's
popular to believe it. We humans can literally lose ourselves in
trying to please everyone around us, or live up to expectations that
others have of us. I know folks who've spent a whole lifetime trying
to be someone they think other people will recognize and approve. We
all devote our precious lives to something, so why not have that be
figuring out what we have to offer as individuals living in a
collective culture. Failing to do that deprives the world of our
singular gifts and talents.
It's true that being
yourself in a world trying to make you look like everybody else isn't
easy. It's like doing a jigsaw puzzle, and trying to force a piece
that looks like it should fit into a place where it doesn't fit at
all. Things get bent, and sometimes broken. Sometimes we turn on
ourselves and say, “I'm stupid! Nobody likes me! Why can't I be
like everybody else and just go with the flow?” That works for
people who don't question, and I say, “More power to them!” But,
if you were born with a curious mind, and aren't able to accept
things at face value, if you see the shades of gray between the black
and the white, then don't be afraid to be who you are. You are the
change-maker.
Complacency is only a
virtue if you're comfortable being complacent. If you have a
different view of the world, that is what your soul is here to bring
into consciousness. So bring it! When you do, you'll find other
change-makers who will stand with you. There may not be as many of
them—“narrow the gate and small the road that leads to life, and
those who find it are few.” (Matthew 7:14) The ones you find, however, will be your tribe, and you will belong to them. They will support
your being exactly, and only, you.
In the Spirit,
Jane
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