Know Thyself

Hey yall, Marie here, and yep still writing that book. As promised, here’s a recent excerpt from a chapter I am working on. This one opens the door on a theme I am following on the symbiosis of science and spirit as part of building intercultural competence (it sounds heavy, but it’s actually so simple). I hope you enjoy the read and very much look forward to your feedback as I continue this book creation journey. – Marie

Humans crave significance because it is our divine birthright.

There is nothing else.

We are called into ourselves on purpose.

Humans want to know themselves and know that they matter. There is beauty in possessing a deep knowing relationship with yourself and loving and integrating all your bits and parts. That full integration is the secret to all the good things; equanimity, nirvana, inner peace.

Who do you think you are?

Knowing the answer to that is key. It’s the only way that we learn how to be in relationship with others.

I learned this the hard way (as we all do). Pause. Let’s rewind.

Prepare for the woo detour.

I grew up in the Episcopal church. I didn’t consider myself a woo woo kind of person. I am Caribbean and my parents adhered to a sense of duty to go to church and read the books (The Bible – and all the books therein). I had a Book of Common Prayer with my name engraved on the front and when I completed catechism classes, I was confirmed and did the whole thing. I was told that at 13 I had become a spiritual adult. Don’t laugh. This is real talk. And yeah, there are lots of cultures who have similar spiritual maturity rituals.

But it didn’t stick. I didn’t feel spiritually grown and connected. I was untethered, even if I didn’t know what I was untethered from.

Even if you aren’t into the catholicism of it all, as a 20 something, later in New York I followed my sister to a Baptist, Pentecostal mash up in Brooklyn and then was baptized and had “accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior” and yet, church sucked. The building fund was always thirsty and the pastor was known to be sleeping with multiple congregants. . . and the people, I guess you could call them friendly, but they weren’t friends. There was a veneer of denial to it all, that I could not shake. And being around it? Well it didn’t feel good. So I stopped.

I was a confirmed, baptized human who was still without a spiritual compass and there came a point in my life where I looked up and thought, “really?” is this all there is to my spiritual world? So much about organized religion is filled with fear and loathing for that which does not align with social expectations. But what did I know of my divine expectations?

I’d like to think that God/Spirit, the Divine/Universe is not angry with us for existing or leaning into pleasure, but rather, really hopeful that we will enjoy all the pleasure that is available to us.

I like that definition actually. Somewhere in 2018, 2019 I heard a coach explaining that abundance is not about money, but really about being open and receptive to all of the pleasure that is available. Yum.

From that place, abundance and abundant living is infinite. Why would the Universe want us to not enjoy it? Enjoy the world? To Savor it? To lap it up? To bathe in the magic that is Creation? Life is a wonderland, and not just in the way John Mayer¹ sang about that girl’s body in that one song.

There is something indulgent and gorgeous about living all that you can.

There is so much pleasure to be had, and joy to be experienced, and I think sometimes we forget all of that because we aren’t “supposed to” be having a good time.

Poppycock.

Life is “images of the mind expressed” according to David Cameron Gikandi² and I believe it. Life is meant to be lived. I can’t imagine a God that refers to themselves as alpha and omega, and that insists we are made the same way, would have us live in a fractional limited experience of that. We just have to be curious enough to find it. . . to pull the thread of it.

Imagination creates a new facet of living that seems even more elevated and joyful and pleasurable. And I like living in a world where pleasure and joy are not forbidden, but rather sought after– diligently and intently. I think there is a way to find what brings you joy and live it out and that’s why I seek coaching and coaching conversations to share that ministry, that good word with others. I mean, is that not the most Godly spell of all? I could preach that word.

And you don’t need to jump in a public bath in a white robe, or study an ancient book to get that kind of living; that magical realism that is you living the god in you, on the outside.

I think the only thing we need to study is ourselves. I know it is.

1 In the beginning was the Word³, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

2 The same was in the beginning with God.

3 All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made⁴.

In the beginning there was us. There was the yin and the yang and the order of all things. So then the work of living a divinely led life, of creating everything and achieving universal balance is cracking the mystery that is the balance that is already partially and completely – us.

¹ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5EnGwXV_Pg

² Gikandi, David Cameron. Happy Pocket Full of Money: Infinite Wealth and Abundance in the Here and Now. BetterLife Books, 2005.

³ The Word used in this context comes from the Greek Word “logos” which refers to the first principle and is also aligned with the word “Tao” in Chinese philosophy which refers to the balanced order of all things, reporting both the yin and yang.

⁴ King James Bible John 1: 1-3