Who do you think you are?
Are you the asshole who lives in your head? Are you the sum of all the stories your mind recorded over the years – the tales of triumph and woe, of successes and (mostly) failures?
Are you Fear and Darkness, inherently rotten and broken and unworthy? Were you created to struggle and suffer, to toil uphill your entire life in a (completely unnecessary) attempt to atone for your sins?
Are you your preferences?
Are you the color blue or the lucky number 27? Are you a skin tone, a diet, a number on a scale, a face in a mirror? Are you a job title, the amount of money in your bank account, a box that you check, “married – divorced – single”?
Are you your limitations? Are you all of the “I can’t’s” and “I don’t’s” and “I’m not good at’s”?
Or.
Are you something far greater than the mind can even comprehend?
Are you
the Sound of Silence?
the feeling of Grace?
the Light behind your eyes?
Are you warmth and laughter and joy? Are you hope and bliss and peace and the “pure, radiant Awareness” (as the Buddha called it) that perceives all of the tiny sparkling miracles around you?
Are you an Energy so pure and sweet and beautiful that sometimes the experience of it feels like it’s too much to bear?
I know who you are…
Do you? Can you remember?
Will you have the courage to shed the layers of armor and masks and all the costumes you wear? To strip away the dirt and filth and grime that’s accumulated over the years, to simply let it all go and cleanse yourself in the purity of forgiveness and self-compassion? Are you (finally) ready to exhale?
…
There.
Welcome Home.