Remember Who You Are

I am humbled by the complexity, the horror, the divisions, and the misery of these times.  Each one of us is touched.  We are angry, we are enraged, and we feel powerless.  These things are true. I am grateful for those among us who still open their hearts, their deepest selves, to others.  It’s hard to be angry and to want to remain connected – to one another, to those we love, to ourselves.  Our anger is needed as fuel for our work, and we also need to be grounded – in ourselves.

I don’t have a magic potion, but I do know that when I am feeling hopeless, powerless, I need something deeper than what I am counting on to guide me now.  I need to return to a deeper place in myself, and from that place, where compassion and hope live, I can begin to know that depth in others. We need to be reminded:  we are not our anger, we are not our rage, we are not our powerlessness.  Something more will sustain us.  It will.  I know this.  You know this, also.

There is a scene in The Lion King when the mystic healer Rafiki takes Simba to meet the spirit of his deceased father, Mufasa.  Before his death, Mufasa was the beloved King of Pride Rock.  Simba has been banished from community by his shame.  He had lost touch with his truest self, his wholeness.  The spirit of his father says to his son: “You are Simba.  Remember who you are.”

Everything colludes to take this away from us.  We need our anger, our rage, our frustration, our pain, our sense of disconnection. Sometimes, that is all we have to keep us alive, to keep us focused on our vision.   But there is more. 

You are more. 

Like Simba, you need to remember who you are. 

Do this:   Set aside, literally and figuratively, what you are holding in this moment. 

                 Sit.  Feel your body-self.  Feel your body-self sitting in the chair. 

                 Sit.  Be aware of your breath.  Breath.  Allow the breath.

                 Sit.  Feel your feet, close to the earth.  Notice the sensations there.

                 Sit.  Return to your breath.  Breath.  Breath again.  Allow your breath.

                 Sit.  Notice the sensations in your body.  This is your body’s wisdom. 

                Be grateful for this moment.  Take the time you need, take the time you can.

The words of Richard Rohr, in his book, Immortal Diamond, are comforting to me.  “Your soul is who you are in God and who God is in you.”  I am comforted, knowing that as I remember this, I am beginning to remember even more, that this is who I am.  And this larger Self, this One Who I  Am – Who You Are, is what is needed. We are waiting. We are all waiting for You.

We need you to remember.  Remember who you are.