I have never just been me, the authentic Me. The Me with no added sugar or artificial coloring- I am no longer choosing to do this. I now aspire to be all of me, the profane, the sacred, the twisted, the glorious and everything in between. It is time, time to lay down all my armor. It has grown so, so heavy, and truth be told, it has never shined…….Steven R. O’Brien

where does the heart relax? where does the reality of who we are become unimportant as a goal but an act of becoming in itself? making music and being music and singing soul and giving soul……

We are all creators of reality, but most of the time we work with a limited palette because we simply don’t see all of the tools at our disposal.

We see a limited reality because we believe we are limited. Our ego tells us so — over and over, incessantly chattering at us, filling our minds with bunk. Maybe you’re smart, good looking and funny — or maybe you’re not — your ego loves to expound on your faults.

And after you’ve heard something a certain number of times, you’ll start to believe it’s true.

Even put into the most positive of terms, the answer to Who am I? will be a limited one. If you’ve ever written a profile for a dating site, you know that a laundry list of physical attributes and personality characteristics can never be an accurate description of who you really are.

The very word description, in fact, is synonymous with construct — there is nothing real about it.

So what is real about you? It may be easier to think about the real you as a physical being, but that still doesn’t answer the question. Just like we don’t really know where the Earth is in relation to the rest of the existence, we don’t really know where we are in relation to our bodies.

I’m pretty sure that I exist somewhere behind my eyes and in between my ears because this is the center of my awareness.

Since my brain is located in this exact place, it might follow from this thought that I am my brain. Which would also mean that I am merely a conglomeration of atoms and molecules and physical matter; that my sense of self — my soul — is simply an illusion created by my brain.

People might argue that this illusory self is evolution’s way of instilling in us a strong desire for self-preservation. (If I were not deeply invested in my sense of self, would I so vehemently resist death?)

Yet the evolutionary advantage works just as well if I do in fact have a soul — my life is important to me for the very reason that I am me, regardless of whether this sense of self is real or illusory.

In a sense, I am merely a passenger in my own body.

But there are certainly moments when the physical body bonds with the soul — when you feel uninhibited. Unlimited. Whole.

Like when you’re meditating, or running really fast, or physically bonded with another person and suddenly you’re connected to something bigger, something timeless, some kind of big joy — you’ve somehow slipped into God-space.

The real you is an integral part of the Universe — like a hologram, the part equal to the whole. You are as limitless as existence itself because you are existence itself. You’ve felt it — even if only for brief moments at a time.

And even though your ego is telling you, right now, that this couldn’t possibly true, the real you knows that it is.

…..Liz Ross

dance a little

From within or from behind,
a light shines through us upon things,
and makes us aware that we are
nothing, but the light is all.
…..Ralph Waldo Emerson