To be back in some form of a semblance of a schedule after summer holidays is always somewhat painful. However this year the transition out of summer and into the school term was, for the most part, easier on many levels…
The first and most exciting thing being that Bubbles is back. Need I say more.
The second of which is having classes that pertain to things I want to learn about and will continue to want to learn about.
The third being that I am stoked for the numerous opportunities that have been placed in front of me. Chances to inject things that I have spent the summer thinking and meditating on.
This summer gave me plenty of time to experience the excellence of maturing while realizing that I was not yet an adult. This gave me great practice in taking account for my actions and my apology skills. Out of this however came a greater sense that I will always make mistakes. Just because I am 22 does not mean that I will always be a perfect and upstanding member of society (nor will I be at any age). Having mostly overcome this perfectionist notion that had wedged itself somewhere between my pride and ego I am feeling all the more alive for the lessons learned this summer.
This summer I really wanted to see and interact with as many people as possible. To really get into life again. To really just be and be allowed to be. A large part of that for me was a disconnecting with customary face value interactions and submerge myself into the intimacy one can have in conversation with another. It was outstanding. The conversations I had this summer with people were so real it hurt at times.
You start to realize the influence the world has on people...for better but mostly for the worse. For example week after week at camp this summer I had 14-15 year old girls crying to the point of not being able to cry anymore due to lies our culture has ingrained upon their minds. A beautiful girl that has accepted that she is ugly and unlovable due to her status as a person of mixed race. Another girl who has been haunted by peers due to a slight speech impediment escalading to the point of feeling inadequate to express herself in any way that would cause attention to be drawn to herself. Yet another girl that was ostracized by her peers for standing up for a boy that had been set apart due to his cultural background to the point of his almost suicide and her inability to belong again since becoming a whistle blower. And these are just a few examples. I could not believe the number of girls that had never been told they were ok just the way they were. To be allowed to love themselves and to really truly know that people could love them the way they were. The affect that words can have when spoken in absolute truth is hard to fathom. They become something else entirely. Absolute truth is something that has become deeply hidden in our world. It’s seen as being awkward to talk about …but when people are re-exposed to absolute truth the experience cannot be anything but powerful.
Being in a conversation of absolute truth with others you realize that often thoughts you imagined only to exist deep within the vault of your soul in actuality exist in us all. And when the walls of insecurity are dropped you are faced with a mirror image of yourself. The person sitting across from you is no longer just defined by their name or physical image but something much more profound. A deep and resounding heart beat that reverberates within the depth of us all is found. I believe this is how God sees us. Past all our alibis and truthless self ideals to an identity that He alone can justify and entirely embrace without cause or explanation. An undying truth that cries out ceaselessly forever in the form of unending love.
I am there by James Dillet Freeman (1947) is the closest verbalization to the realization of the power of absolute truth I had this summer. Check it out if you have the time. Its long but well worth the read.
God bless,
Skakes
The first and most exciting thing being that Bubbles is back. Need I say more.
The second of which is having classes that pertain to things I want to learn about and will continue to want to learn about.
The third being that I am stoked for the numerous opportunities that have been placed in front of me. Chances to inject things that I have spent the summer thinking and meditating on.
This summer gave me plenty of time to experience the excellence of maturing while realizing that I was not yet an adult. This gave me great practice in taking account for my actions and my apology skills. Out of this however came a greater sense that I will always make mistakes. Just because I am 22 does not mean that I will always be a perfect and upstanding member of society (nor will I be at any age). Having mostly overcome this perfectionist notion that had wedged itself somewhere between my pride and ego I am feeling all the more alive for the lessons learned this summer.
This summer I really wanted to see and interact with as many people as possible. To really get into life again. To really just be and be allowed to be. A large part of that for me was a disconnecting with customary face value interactions and submerge myself into the intimacy one can have in conversation with another. It was outstanding. The conversations I had this summer with people were so real it hurt at times.
You start to realize the influence the world has on people...for better but mostly for the worse. For example week after week at camp this summer I had 14-15 year old girls crying to the point of not being able to cry anymore due to lies our culture has ingrained upon their minds. A beautiful girl that has accepted that she is ugly and unlovable due to her status as a person of mixed race. Another girl who has been haunted by peers due to a slight speech impediment escalading to the point of feeling inadequate to express herself in any way that would cause attention to be drawn to herself. Yet another girl that was ostracized by her peers for standing up for a boy that had been set apart due to his cultural background to the point of his almost suicide and her inability to belong again since becoming a whistle blower. And these are just a few examples. I could not believe the number of girls that had never been told they were ok just the way they were. To be allowed to love themselves and to really truly know that people could love them the way they were. The affect that words can have when spoken in absolute truth is hard to fathom. They become something else entirely. Absolute truth is something that has become deeply hidden in our world. It’s seen as being awkward to talk about …but when people are re-exposed to absolute truth the experience cannot be anything but powerful.
Being in a conversation of absolute truth with others you realize that often thoughts you imagined only to exist deep within the vault of your soul in actuality exist in us all. And when the walls of insecurity are dropped you are faced with a mirror image of yourself. The person sitting across from you is no longer just defined by their name or physical image but something much more profound. A deep and resounding heart beat that reverberates within the depth of us all is found. I believe this is how God sees us. Past all our alibis and truthless self ideals to an identity that He alone can justify and entirely embrace without cause or explanation. An undying truth that cries out ceaselessly forever in the form of unending love.
I am there by James Dillet Freeman (1947) is the closest verbalization to the realization of the power of absolute truth I had this summer. Check it out if you have the time. Its long but well worth the read.
God bless,
Skakes
2 comments:
Yeah!!! you're back!
thanks for your reflection and for your gifts and for your organizational skills and for your energy!
i'm into it.
Post a Comment