Keeping Our Center ~ Day 106

To continue yesterday’s thought process, whenever I think of stripping away our layers to get to our authentic selves I find myself thinking of Shrek. In the animated movie, the ugly, green ogre Shrek is telling his sidekick, Donkey, that ogres have layers. Shortly thereafter, in exasperation, Donkey declares, “Oh, you’re so wrapped up in layers, Onion Boy, you’re afraid of your own feelings.”

I’m a firm believer that underneath all of our layers is a pure, beautiful soul. Look into the eyes of any baby and you’ll see that precious, trusting, loving, knowing wisdom and innocence that we’re all born with. Without really being aware of what is happening, we slowly cover that core with protective layers, and probably rightly so to survive in a world that is often less than kind.

But once we hit middle-age-ish, we’ve come far enough to sense the importance of that pure inner self buried somewhere beneath ego. We catch glimpses when we lose ourselves to a beautiful moment whether it be a sunset over the water, a piece of music, a kiss, or playing with a child. Suddenly our guard is down and joy and peace rush in, filling us to the tips of our toes, and we feel whole.

So, here’s the challenging part… we can actively choose to let go of our layers and experience the fullness of life with which we are one, or not. Sometimes it doesn’t feel like a choice, but it is. When the dog rolls in the mud, we can choose to be angry, or we can choose to laugh in oneness with the unabashed joy the dog is experiencing. When someone criticizes us, we can beat ourselves up with it or we can look at ourselves to see if it is true and we need to adjust our behavior, or we need to let it go and not add another layer. When we feel hurt, we can lash out, or withdraw, or we can risk a healing encounter by sticking it out and working through it, examining our own part in the problem. When we’re caught in the rain, we can run for safety and curse the storm gods, or we can dance in it.

Perhaps that is simplifying things too much, but often the simple is the hardest to do.

Love & Light!

Kaye