What personal belongings do you hold most dear?
To paraphrase somebody, might have been the Dalai Lama: the problem is people love shit and use people, not the other way around.
If my house is on fire, I’m running for the kids, not my great Grandmom’s crocheted blanket, or my Grandmom’s kitchen aid, or anything anybody gave me except the people I’ve been entrusted with.
They do belong to me in the sense that I’m their mom and they’re my kids. We belong to each other. I think something that has gotten lost is that we all belong to each other.
Everything has us trained to see and strengthen separation. You think you can hurt yourself without hurting everyone but it is simply untrue, and the very idea that you are alone and isolated is what is hurting you in the first place.
You aren’t just one isolated island of a soul, you are part of the ocean of us. You are your own star in the endless night sky, and without you, nothing is the same.
Look even at our language: I’m somebody’s kid, somebody’s mom, somebody’s wife, neighbor, friend, favorite blogger, you name it. It’s really hard to define who I am without using other people and things to describe me. You can’t define me or you, you can cobble other things together for an amalgamation or description. It’s not like I actually am just a mom or world renowned writer, who I am, who you are, truly, can’t be put into words and whatever it is, we all have it.
Let’s call it light, since historically that’s the term. Christ means light. Buddha means light. These aren’t names, they are titles, and they are 2 dudes, completely normal dudes who found their light and tried to show others how to find their own light, and instead, people worshipped and followed them instead. Does this seem relatable in today’s day and age? There are plenty of people that are worshipped and followed just like those two.
Let’s call it spark. That unique spark that is in each of us. Nobody writes like me or like you. Nobody sees the world like me or you. Look at your favorite people – the ones you fork your money to or stalk their pages, or whatever: what do they have? They found their spark, their gift, the things that light them up, and they do it. And what happens? They light themselves up and they light you up too. You know these types I’m talking about, regardless of fame. There are people who simply are so cool with themselves, they make it okay for you to be cool with yourself. Generally what Jesus and Buddha and a lot of people do every day.
I think of it as Grandmom’s Apple Crisp or Cheese pie.
Nobody makes it as good as they did. I can follow my Grandmom’s cheese pie recipe to the T: and hers will be better. Why? She never put 4 tbsp of lemon, an Italian woman in the kitchen? It was whatever her heart told her ya know? I can try desperately to replicate the recipe my Grandmom never left for her apple crisp, and though I’ve gotten damn close: it ain’t hers.
Words are recipes, but people are the whole dish. We get so damn hung up on arguing about recipes, we don’t even eat what’s on the table. Worse yet, so many of us don’t see what we are. That spark, that light, that gift: there is something that is you that is nobody else. Your gift, whatever it is, you are this unique perfect being. Your Self.
And for so many, call it the light, spark, or tasty dish: it is dimmed, hidden away, persona non gratis for the sake of acceptance, peace keeping, whatever.
So many are trapped in perceptions of mental illness or addiction. It’s so hidden away, so trapped, that people are hurting and abusing themselves because they can’t take the pain of being and not being themselves. I’d go so far as to say, there is nothing more mentally ill than self rejection, because if you do not have your own back, you have nothing, nowhere to stand, no place to lie your head, no one to trust, and no one to love.
Sin is separation, to separate Self is the original sin. To somehow believe that you are separate from creation is original sin. It is not a naughty list. If you can believe you came from your mom and dad, like … something started all of this, I don’t care what you call it, the light, the spark. Whatever started it, you came from it as much as you came from your parents and you are imbibed with the same gifts of this creation as I am curly haired bc of my dad or a voracious reader like Mom.
To separate yourself from this is sin, because you have cut yourself from the flow. You’re an arm trying to detach from the body. You can’t do, be, or think like that and not hurt everybody. People think their suffering is in silos, it’s not. If your shine is dimmed, our collective shine is dimmed. If you’re falling down, we’re falling down. If you raise yourself an inch, you’ve raised the whole universe an inch. But even more simply, if you are hurting yourself, you are hurting someone else. You might not be aware of it, but you are.
We belong to each other.
It is easy to ignore others when you don’t see it that way – their problem, I don’t live there, they don’t agree with me, etc. Everything is creating and supporting separation and othering, and look how bad it’s getting. Look how high mental illness, addictions, overdoses, and suicides are. All snuffed candles. Killed by separation, killed by not knowing their light, perfection, beauty, uniqueness, authenticity.
We were never born to hate or harm ourselves.
This shit is learned behavior bc you are far more valuable miserable. That’s how we’re here, where people love shit and use people. Bc they think this shit makes them feel or be better, so they spend the money. They think something could fill a hole that only, really, embracing themselves completely can fill.
Of course, this isn’t a call to sell your shit and save the world. The only way you can save the world is to save yourself. How do you save yourself? Find your light, clean your dirty windows, and shine bright like Rihanna clearly didn’t at the Super Bowl 🤣
Nothing in this world lives for or by itself.
We are completely interdependent upon everything. Nature, each other, and forces beyond words. Our light is what is needed most, everything in the world is the symptom of one root problem: we have forgotten who we are. We do so much for I, when there is no I. There’s only ever we. All these spiritualists who want to make something as sacred as your soul akin to a Mary Kay or Lularoe pyramid scheme…
You don’t need a fucking masterclass to find your soul or transcend your ego
Ready: wanna know how to transcend your ego? Stop using I and start using we. Boom! Wanna know how to find your soul? Do the thing you keep not doing. The thing you never have time for but you will always make yourself feel guilty about. Take the first step you keep avoiding. Speak your mind, drop filters, be who you are, how you are, as you are, when you are and remember you are under no obligation to be true to anyone but yourself.
How can you talk about we and self?
We are many unique perfect selves part of one greater being. Our Self is like a cell of a body. What happens to a body if the cells are sick, mutated, etc. In support of the body, we must each care for our individual cell/Self. We find it, honor it, love it, show it, and that helps others do the same. Heal your cell/Self, you help other cells/Selves.
I have no favorite belongings in the material sense, but it is my honor to belong to you and every other person. I cannot be me if not for you, so thank you.
What do you think? Little deep for a daily prompt, but I think far more interesting than telling you about a blanket or a kitchen aid lmao.
You can find me
I bet you can guess my snap, but so help me god if I get an unsolicited Richard Nixon, I’m posting it everywhere with emojis, and I will victimize my friends by making them have to see your emoji-dick. I have a collection!
I’m on Twitter but kind of don’t really see the point anymore
Related posts, if you’d like to click around:
Would Jesus even be Monetized nowadays?
Mah Butt Itches 
Yep, I feel the same way about possessions. 🙂
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