Today, a friend and I were questioning authenticity.
How do you life an authentic spiritual life while living a practical, day-to-day life?
The first thirty years of my life, I was a career woman working long hours, raising funds for nonprofits. I always had a spiritual interest but never dove deep into the spiritual "moonstone" pond.
Over the years, I accumulated dreams and messages with deceased people. I flashed back to conversations with them when I was young. I had a profound memory surface of my own near death experience--a near-drowning as a child. But, It was a vivid dream I had during my father's dying that began my journey forward.
And, then, my question became, how do I find the courage to be my truth, my authentic being?
We are born into the world into our wildest, most true essence. As the years grow, our truth is muddied by parental and societal ":", "musts" and "have to bes."
And, then, one day we look at our reflection in the pond and wonder who we truly are, not how society defines us by our jobs or our careers, or our titles like "mother" or "father" or grandmother or grandfather.
Our muddied reflection makes us feel strange, detached, disengaged from ourselves, free-floating, like our minds are on a ever-twirl above us. We carry on earthly conversations about money and sex rather than love and compassion and gratitude. We forget to celebrate our uniqueness or the day.
How do we get back to our truth?
By:
Remembering what we liked to do as children before our lives:
As a child, I would write stories on my Dad's drafting board, illustrate them, bind them and sell them door-to-door in the neighborhood for 25 cents. I loved to sit on the front porch on a summer day and feel the evening breeze against my skin and watch the sun set and stars begin to dapple the night sky. I loved the smell of a summer rain and jumping in puddles. And, I loved to run my fingertips along textured fabric and create things, all kind of things--from modest bikinis to sketches of flowers and rhythmic songs about lions. I loved the wash of the water on my skin as I swam in the pool or lake. And, I could never get enough of others people's thoughts or words.
Truly hearing the words that we speak and being in our truth.
Stop yourself throughout the day and think about what you've said. Where have you lied? Where have you not been in your truth? Compassionate can be held hand-in-hand with truth.
Doing what makes me happy.
Was it the Puritans that taught us that survival is painful and survival means struggle. We are meant to be light beings, like a bubble drifting across a pond. We are meant to be joyful and fun.
Challenging myself.
And, speaking of bubbles, every single one of us lives in some sort of bubble world. We drive the same way to work. We go to the same restaurants. We live in the same town for years. We live in a comfortable sense instead of an expansive sense. I now try to ask myself what have I done today to challenge myself to be bigger, better, or different?
Going for the butterflies.
Those weird stomach twinges mean I am uncomfortable, challenging myself, making something new happens. The older we get, the less we twinge those twinges. Swim in the pond with a new stroke. Make a change. Transform.
And, on those days when I am overwhelmed by how to live every moment in my truth, I pull out my favorite tea, Mighty Tea Chamomile Citrus, and my favorite cup, Sinceri-tea, and sit on the couch and swim in the citrusy-chamomile flavors. When the last drop of tea is finished, I turn the cup and revel in the inscription inside:
"Sinceri-tea: n. the quality of being open and truthful while drinking tea."
