What if we lived like oak trees? God plants the seed of Self, and we watch ourselves bloom and grow. More often, we humans worry so much about who we are, we can’t enjoy ourselves and our lives. Who am I? What should I be doing? Instead of incessantly asking these questions, what if you let yourself be without expectation. What if you are already perfectly you? The answer, of course, is that you can’t be anything but perfectly you because that’s who you are!
I have often thought I should be other than who I am, thinking “shoulds” will make me better. I should be famous for my_____. Fill in the blank: for my music, my writing, my painting, my social work, my activism, whatever your “should” happens to be. You should be something other or more than you are. But that is your vision, not God’s. The oak tree never says, “I am not big enough, strong enough, tall enough.” No, the oak tree is what it is, and we are what we are.
Why not accept ourselves as we are today in this very moment. Perhaps that is weak, vulnerable, frightened, embarrassed, shameful. If that is how we feel, that is who we are in that moment. “I am frightened. I am angry.”
Once we do that—accept who we are, we loosen, we let go of our “shoulds” because there is no resistance to what is. We accept the moment, and it changes. The branches of our oak tree sway in the wind; our oak tree moves in its solid beingness.
I wish for you to be grateful for who you are. Grateful for yourself. Grateful for all the shame, fear, joy, and bliss you embody because they are you. You don’t have to try to be anything. Accept what you are and who you are now. Acceptance opens the way for what is to be. Wait and watch the unfolding.
Blessed be.
Only God I Saw
....Like a candle I was melting in his fire:
Amidst the flames outflashing -- only God I saw.
Myself with mine eyes I saw most clearly.
But when I looked with God's eyes -- only God I saw....
--Baba Kuhi of Shiraz