sanity and weirdness
"This world—absolutely pure
As is.
Behind the fear,
Vulnerability.
Behind that,
Sadness, then compassion
And behind that the vast sky.” (Rick Fields)
Everything opens up in this. Freedom, clarity. What it takes, I think, is commitment to sanity. Today especially. Being normal. I know, it sounds boring. Rebels express weirdness.
Here's the thing: The courage to be normal is a courage to be weird. Because when I'm normal, I'm me. Simply me. No pretending (for validation, appreciation, love). No trying to be special, different, superior, small. Me with my quirks, fumbling, goodness.
Normal is who we are, weird. Freedom. Vulnerable. Kind to ourselves. Pure.
Weird. Consider its etymology: From the Old English wyrd, "fate, destiny." It's your essence. To live this is a relief, a gift.
When I give myself permission to be weird, which is normal, I reclaim boundless energy. It's natural. Owning me-ness. I don't need to be pulled in by the crowd, or by "the world with its harsh need to change you."*
It is in living this sanity that I contribute. No one can take this away. Because there's a beautiful coherence in us when we are us.
The world needs our coherence right now. Normalcy. So let's find out who we are, practice being us. We are all at home, literally. We have overnight created safe places to find our real ways of being. Ways of being created in love, intrinsic.
Dare I take this time for discovery? A new kindness? Respect for regrets, failures, tendencies, yearnings, successes, loves? I think so. Pretense has never worked well anyways.
Henry David Thoreau: "Every man’s position is in fact too simple to be described. I have sworn no oath. I have no designs on society, or nature, or God. I am simply what I am, or I begin to be that. I love to live. I love reform better than its modes. There is no history of how bad became better. I believe something, and there is nothing else but that. I know that I am. I know that the enterprise is worthy. I know that things work well."*
Some questions to discover weirdness and normalcy:
When is the last time a day flew by for you? What does it tell you?
What are you willing to let go of in order to say yes to you?
What fills your Elder You with sparkle, when speaking to grandkids about life lived?
Here Thoreau’s eloquent and apt full Letter to Harrison Blake, written on March 27, 1848.
One more quote: “We are not here to fit in, be well balanced, or provide exempla for others. We are here to be eccentric, different, perhaps strange, perhaps merely to add our small piece, our little clunky, chunky selves, to the great mosaic of being. As the gods intended, we are here to become more and more ourselves,” writes James Hollis in What Matters Most.
just being me…. (credit: jay-ruzesky-unsplash)
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