The Un-Naming

Too fat. too skinny.
Too short, too tall.
Overly mouthy, too quiet.
Flashy, plain.
Fake, too real.

Electrician, Teacher, Convenience Store clerk, Banker, Waiter, Bus Driver, Unemployed.

Liberal, Conservative, Republican, Democrat.

Over-achiever, lazy.
Proud, too meek.

Good. Bad. Right. Wrong.

Pagan, Jew, Hindu, Atheist, Christian, Muslim.

Which are the names, which are the labels that you have worn for years? The names and labels that you put on in the morning as naturally as you put on your clothes. Perhaps some of these can be helpful and they enrich your life. But maybe they weigh down your body, mind and spirit, and you learn to live with them day after day, week after week, because it has been this way for such a long time. Perhaps longer than you can remember.

These multitude of names and labels may have been given to you by someone or during some situation, and they've stuck. You may several of them.

Perhaps you have given them to yourself.

In either case, could it be time for the Un-Naming? Could it be time to begin the process of stripping off the layers that have been caked onto you for far too long?

What if finding peace is not about acquiring more, but stripping away those things that we no longer need, the very things that are suffocating us.

This requires a slow, but steady and persistent trust. Not a trust that one day you'll find the label that fits you or describes you perfectly. It is a trust that, when you strip off absolutely all the names, all of the labels, underneath it all is a wonderful soul unlike any other on earth. Perhaps here lies a great deal of the essence of faith.

You don't have to wear the names anymore. You can learn that you no longer need the labels.

You are simply you. And you are are simply wonderful.