Uncork
Mohamed Nohassi on Unsplash
After 20 years on the meditation cushion, visionary entrepreneur Sarah Lipton is coming out with a message loud and clear: Be Who You Are.
Genuineness is not convenient.
Conforming to societal norms, now, that is. Play the game placed before you and do not bend the rules.
Do not worry, dearie, you will be spoon-fed the next move. Your fears will not only be validated but reinforced. Live the cosmetic version of your life and you will achieve satisfaction, success, pleasure, reknown and fame.
Take these steps and I guarantee you will end up an empty, shriveled shell of who you were actually meant to be.
Now, don’t get me wrong, and I don’t mean to be too harsh, but a cosmetically pleasing life will likely only leave you feeling pretty. The illusion and perception of “passing” and “fitting in,” these are only skin-deep and will not satisfy the deeper cravings and yearnings of your heart, blood and bones.
Vanity trains us to accept the rules. Anxiety teaches us to subdue our more colorful desires. Society teaches us that conformity, conveniency and conservatism will bring us happiness.
But that message is wrong. And it’s killing our planet.
We were not taught that contentment can only arise when we are tuned in to things as they actually are.
Taste that for a moment. Things as they actually are. This means dropping assumption. Letting go of mis-perception. Shifting allegiance away from confusion and committing ourselves to an experience of living truth.
In order to shift that allegiance, we have to say a big NO. No to assumptions, conveniencies, and actions based on anxiety. What if there was a supported path we could take that would guide us towards learning to lean in and listen? We might notice that instead of the message of the glossy magazines, we instead begin to listen to the rhythm of rainbows rocking through our veins. What if we actually allowed our inner essence to sparkle and shine out into the world?
Now, don’t freak out. This doesn’t mean walking away from our lives as they are. No, what it means is that we can begin again to open to our lives on the inside. This is how we are built. Watch any small child stomping in a mud muddle or ripping petals from a flower, or witnessing a gigantic rainbow arching across the sky. We already know who we are.
We have simply forgotten.
Why do I raise my voice to try to articulate this now?
Because it is completely intertwined with my own tapestry. I cannot tell a story about why being genuine is so crazy important without sharing my own twisting, meandering, cascading journey.
And, having arrived at this precipice of 40, this robust moment of ripening, it is becoming abundantly clear that in order to have the impact I desperately want to have, I have to come clean and share my story. No quiet hiding for me anymore. No holding up someone else’s banner anymore. Nope. Gotta sew my own vividly colorful banner and hold it high for all to see.
But dang, this is not easy. There is a teeny tiny little stopper corking the top of the huge, round clay jar I built twenty years ago to encapsulate my inner, secret golden light. I think you’ll know what I mean when I say it has been so nice and convenient to keep pushing down the cork, so effectively holding the light in.
I know the light is in there, and I’ve learned how to pick and choose who and where and how to share it. But now that I’ve reached this new perch, I’m painfully aware that if I don’t remove the cork and smash the clay pot, my light will continue to be stuck and I will continue to be pregnant without release.
Ahh, and I crave release. Don’t we all?
Yes!
The deepest marrow of our bones craves release. The snap flap of a flag flying freedom stripes against the sky. The slap splash of fast moving water cascading against solid rocks. The whizz zizz of freshly cut hair scraping against soft palm.
What do you do when you realize you are a big ball of fire and you are the only one who has held you back from burning?
It’s not convenient, I tell you. It’s not convenient to be queer, or a tuba player or short or Buddhist or a gardener or a motherless half Russian Jew or a mother of two or a dancer and writer and quilter and visionary entrepreneur. There, I’ve said it.
But when I let myself be all 32 flavors, there is ease. There is that longed-for release. And there may even be recognition. And that smile may even validate all my efforts more than any of your words ever could. And when you see me, I see you and when I see you, you taste your own spectrum of truth and you will have the power to be who you are.
So. I dare you to join me in chucking convenience against the wall and letting it shatter around your daring, brave and strong feet.