Day 82 - Our True Selves

"Seeing that light, we shall follow that light through the birth canal toward humanity's rebirth. While our labor is long and in some ways hard, we are being born to something huge and precious. We are being born to our own true selves. And we will never settle, ever again, for being less than we truly are." -Marianne Williamson

Today's blog is inspired by the above quotation.  When I read it in my email this afternoon, I thought about the struggle that it is to find and be our true selves.  So much of life tells us to be other people or act in different ways.  This is especially true if part of who you are doesn't fit the "norm" of what society deems acceptable and superior - white, male, adult, heterosexual, Christian, without handicap or disability, etc.  Unfortunately, too many people try to make changes to who we are to fit these standards so that they can be approved in society's eyes, but they become lost in their own.  And there's no guarantee that the changes we make will even satisfy our critics.  

So even though the process of finding and staying true to your authentic self is like a baby pushing through the birth canal - a space that is pressed in all around it, almost fighting it every step of the way - the ability to be born and breathe your own air and see the world through new eyes is an incredible experience.  We are born to be more than someone's shadow, clone, or stepping stone.  We each have a wonderful purpose that only we can fulfill, and it's in being ourselves in spite of the detractors that we can fulfill said purpose.  And once you have a taste of your true self, it will be nigh unto impossible to go back to being anything.

Be who you be.