DETHRONING SHADOWS

I have been worn thin by religion. It has stripped the skin from my muscles, ripped the meat from my bones. Politics have left me drowning in a sea of shoulds and should nots, in an ocean of too much and not enough. Politicians eat lies with a side of shifty eyes for dinner. They feed scraps of scandal to their dogs and ask us to give them our hearts while the underpaid maids stand in the corner of the kitchen, fricasseeing something throbbing and purple suspiciously heart shaped. I want to make a bonfire from the self-help manuals, put the pompous preachers and politicians on mute. Sing naked, dancing in the light of the rising flames with my brothers and sisters who understand that a horse never reads books about how to be a better horse, that the sky doesn’t cry because it feels guilty for clouding sometimes, that the tides do not order themselves to freeze stop being what they were born to be. Guilt is a function of a terrorized mind, and we, my loves, are victims of such terror we know nothing else, living as we have for eons in the shadows of tyrants who claim to know better than our sacred selves. The monsters on the cave wall are hand shadows cast by mortal men invoking gods millions of miles high to horrify us into submission. Stand up. Cowering before shadows does not become you. There is no distance between you and God. God is in the air you breathe, the light you see. The creator dances playfully, intelligently, in your very DNA. You were born knowing how to be human. You can never be anything else.

I still believe. I believe you can wake up in the morning, and miracles can happen every time you turn around. I believe miracles DO happen every time you turn around, and it's up to you to notice them. I believe that no matter how things look in the short term, people that love with open hearts and tell the truth will always end up happier than people who hate and lie. I believe that love is real. I believe that love has nothing to do with possession. I believe that God is real. I believe that God has nothing to do with dogma. I believe that wealth is real. I believe that wealth has nothing to do with money. I believe that heaven and hell are all around us. I believe that in any given moment, we can choose which state of being to engage with. When we look for signs of magic and love and light and beauty, when we greet our world and our creator with a sense of gratitude, we see heaven. When we look for signs of unfairness and cruelty and lovelessness, when we greet our world and our creator with a sense of indignation, we see hell. I believe that everything that happens around me happens because of what is inside me. I believe that every person that broke my heart was allowed to do so by me. I believe that as I broke my heart on their broken places, and allowed myself to cry and scream at the sky and finally, to be healed, a broken piece of my heart healed forever. I believe in forgiving those who broke my heart and thanking them for the lessons they taught me. I believe in loving until it hurts. I believe in playing the fool for love. I believe that love is the only thing in this world worth living for. I believe that love is the only thing in this world worth dying for. I do not believe in accidents. I do not fear death. I do not fear life. I still believe in love. I still believe in magic. I still believe.

Humans, our little social constructions mean nothing. You do not make a piece of earth yours by sticking a flag in it. Ask the earth what she thought of your flag 5,000 years from now. You do not make yourself bigger because you manage to pile up stuff around you. As you die, you will be as small as any other man, no matter how big your bed. You do not make another human yours by writing your names together on a piece of paper. Real love is not written in ink. It is written in the stars. It is written on the flesh of your ancient and sacred heart. You will never be any bigger or smaller than you are now. You will never own anything but your soul. You will never be bound to anyone by anything more than the invisible force of love. If you are looking for meaning, do not look in the direction of the imaginary and fleeting structures of humanity. Look to what is, with or without humanity's say-so. Look to your breath. Look to the wind. Look to the birds. Look to the sea. Look to the sky. Look at the stars and wonder. Be small. Look to the ants and wonder. Be big. Be.

When you choose to follow your truth, you will lose the false respect of small souls too afraid to follow their own, fragile souls without bearings, who are transported by every popular opinion like dead leaves in gusts of wind. As you walk down your highway of diamonds, their derisive voices will fade into the fabric of a glorious night, become planks in the moonlit cradle that rocks your very own cluster of stars.