You wanna fly, you gotta give up the shit that weighs you down. ~Toni Morrison
Some folks begin the new year with a resolution to lose weight, eat healthier, exercise more. By the end of February, many resolutions, about weight or otherwise, have fallen by the wayside. So the title of this post might have caught your eye. Perhaps you thought it was going to be a pep talk about recommitting to your aspiration, or perhaps you thought I had the newest, bestest, most sure fire way to really shed the pounds – the secret we’ve all been looking for.
And in a way, you would be right, but not in the way you think. This is not a post about what the bathroom scale tells us about our body weight. This is about shedding what weighs down our soul. As the light began to return following the winter solstice, I became drawn to a song by India Arie, I Am Light. In it, she lists many of the things that burden our spirit, weighing so heavily that we are unable to soar freely as we are meant to do. Here are excerpts from the lyrics:
I am light, I am light
I am not the things my family did
I am not the voices in my head
I am not the pieces of the brokenness inside
I am light, I am light
I’m not the mistakes that I have made
Or any of the things that caused me pain
I am not the pieces of the dream I left behind
I am light, I am light
I am not the color of my eyes
I am not the skin on the outside
I am not my age
I am not my race
My soul inside is all light
I am divinity defined
I am the god on the inside
I am a star
A piece of it all
I am light
Take a minute and consider the list of all the things we are not. Many of us have created our whole identity from these things. The song is not denying that things happen in our lives, or that we have certain characteristics. But they become limitations when we attach to them, when we define ourselves by our bio-data, our roles, or what has happened to us. The song is saying that these things are not the essence of who we are. We can bemoan these things or enjoy them, we can have whatever feelings we have about them, but we need not chain our spirits to them. The essence of our spirit is light, light that shines within us as the divine spark of life and from us out into the world as warm rays of love. Whatever does not lift us up can be acknowledged, blessed, and released from weighing us down.
So tuck that bathroom scale away. Shed soul pounds by giving up the shit that weighs you down. Nourish your soul with the good food of inspiration. Exercise remembrance of who you are with every breath. And fly free into the limitless light of your own divinity.
I will believe the truth about myself, no matter how beautiful it is. ~Macrina Wiederkehr
If you would like to know the story of the magnificent sculpture in the photo, please click here.
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