There are certain things that I would call “appendages”, that become almost a part of one’s life, as a result of the challenges that they face, and the trials that they have been through. These accessories, as I term them, have now become a part of the person’s life, a permanent fixture. The appendages are the tools that they acquired over time, to help them deal with their problems. Unfortunately, the tools have become crutches, because they no longer assist in solving the problem, but in perpetuating them. Now, the tools help the person bear the problem, and suffer through it, instead of seeking a permanent solution. These appendages are survival techniques and tools that last too long, and might even become another problem, in and of themselves. They are the crutches that once carried you, now you carry them.
Our crutches help us limp along through life, but they never address the underlying problem. The crutches excuse, and even encourage our infirmity and feebleness. They provide alibis for us, and give us a false sense of security and wellness. We are sick, well into our bones, but the crutches placate us and dull our senses, deceiving us into believing that all is well, that this is the best that we can do, all while keeping us stagnated.
And so, years go by, opportunities slip by us, but the problems and the attendant crutches remain. The limp gets worse, and we rely on the crutches some more, naively believing how helpful they are. A vicious cycle develops.
If only we could see that the crutches just rationalize our frailty, especially of the mind, which is the worst possible place for a person to be infirm. So we never seek real solutions, real healing, real care. Infirmity has become a quasi-permanent state. And we accept it, and feel grateful. Why would we seek better, genuine, full healing, when we believe that we have all we need in the crutches?
Thus, we continue limping along through life with the crutches that have now become a part of us, a life companion, even part of our identity. Wherever we are seen, the crutches are seen, too. Wherever we go, there go the crutches. People define and describe us by our crutches. If they extend an invitation to us, they might as well invite the omnipresent and regressive crutches. Sometimes they see our crutches even before they see us, because the crutches have subsumed our identity, hopes, and dreams.
What we fail to see is that we are carrying the crutches, more than they are carrying us. We are expending valuable energy- both mental and physical- to carry the crutches, when we could have just used the same energy to move ourselves, to travel faster and further. A crutch-less, unencumbered spirit can scale heights that a spirit weighed down by crutches can’t even begin to envisage.
You think you need that thing or person to serve as a ladder for you, to stabilize your life, or help you climb higher. Truth is, the ladder is leaning on you, more than you’re leaning on it, and it is adding more to your burdens, rather than alleviating them.
So what to do?
First, identify your crutches, recognize them for the dead weights that they are. This can be difficult, because as we have already established, many people think that they need their crutches, and they erroneously rely on these self-limiting albatrosses. Others will argue that their crutches are actually useful and indispensable, so recognizing a crutch is a challenge of its own.
Implement a clear-eyed, honest assessment of all the mental accessories and aids in your life, and note the things that subtract rather than add joy and light to your life. Anything that has consistently encumbered your progress must quickly be jettisoned with the promptness that a sinking ship ditches its cargo, in order to save itself.
Travel through life light and free. A burdened being rarely ascends to great heights.
You must first cast off the mental chains and crutches, before you can take hold of a brighter, beautiful, liberated future. Let the crutches go. Set them free so you too can be free. You are both the inmate and the jailer here. Set both of you free, and you will be free indeed.
Don’t wait for your “song” before you dance. The DJ might not know it, or have it in his or her collection. Don’t miss out on today’s joy because what you liked yesterday isn’t available. Try something new! You just might find yourself a new favorite song, something that you like better!
Dance! Don’t wait for the drums to play before you dance, because if you do, you will merely be dancing to the drummer’s beat, adjusting your energies and moves to their rhythm. Start dancing. Let the drummer take his cue from you. Start dancing. Let the world follow. Let your vision and your passion lead, let the fervid spirit within you lead the way, not the world’s beat. Some people need the world to tell them what tune to dance to. Some listen to an external chime before they start tapping their feet. Not you. You bring yours. You drive yours. You sustain yours. And the world responds to the life in your rhythm.
You can twist your ankle, or even lose your vision, because you’re trying to dance to a beat that does not flow with your natural energy. Worse, you can become too reliant on their sound, and forget yours. In listening to them, you might slowly move away from yourself and forget how to hear the voice of your soul. Never dim your inner voice.
So dance! The true dancer doesn’t need a drummer to beat for him to dance, no. He brings his own music, in his heart. His soul is a skillful player who sublimely, expertly, plays on its instrument, whatever the dancer needs. He who dances always has music. He brings his own. He tells the world what he wants to dance to, and the cadence of his steps reveals the exact percussion flowing from his soul. Don’t wait. Listen to the music within, and dance!
You only need external music if you stop listening to the music within. Listen to your soul’s sound, and keep dancing, and the music will never stop. Your life’s melody is found in your soul. Listen, and your dance will always be beautiful, true, unique, dynamic, irreplaceable, all yours.
When you dance from within, you will never be lost. You will always know your way home, for you will be home.
Why is kryptonite dangerous to Superman? It weakens him and deprives him of his supernatural abilities. In other words, it makes him ordinary, like a “normal” guy, destructible, conquerable.
As long as he is Superman, and retains his special talents, he thrives and soars above all else. He dominates in his domain and is unstoppable. His demise can only come when he disrobes himself of his “specialness”, and becomes average.
His averageness is his waterloo.
What sets you apart as a person is what sets you apart in the world, and brings you to a place of success and honor.
Humans, as similar as we are in our DNA and other biological makeup, we are also very different. Our similarities are obvious, and are on the surface. One needn’t do anything to partake in the biological qualities, one need only breath, exist. On the other hand, the things that set us apart are hidden, and we must dig deep, and draw them forth. We must be well-acquainted with our inner, deeper, hidden self. We must intentionally bring forth these differentiating gifts. This takes work. It takes self study, self-knowledge, and self-possession.
A man who knows not himself can not know the vast riches that are housed within him. And so, he can not know what makes him different, special. He is thus undistinguished, and unsung.
Among his contemporaries, he remains a nobody, for he hasn’t found a way to demonstrate his genius, to announce himself to the world, and to stand out . No one goes to the marketplace to buy the things that they already possess. People purchase the things that they lack. People need you for the things that they can’t do for themselves, that is, they need you for the things that make you different. If all you have to offer is what they already have, then you add little or no value to them. This invariably renders you useless.
Become a superman in your area of endeavor. Retain your supernaturalness. Be special, and share your specialness with the world. This is how you win. This is how your soul is fulfilled.
You are never more lost than when you are running from yourself. You will never wear another man’s face, and yet know your own. Your heart cannot despise you yet love you at the same time.
Know you. Accept you. Love yourself, strengths, flaws, warts, and all. Then you can show up right in the world and do the amazing things that you’ve been called to do.
God created you in His image. Being the apex of creation, you too will, and must create your world after your own image. If you do not embrace your image, and yourself, how can you create anything worthwhile? How’s that even impossible? It’ll be like a nonpregnant chicken trying to give birth to a goat. She’s trying to accomplish two immutable impossibilities: bring forth from nothing, and bring forth a kind that’s different and apart from herself. Impossible!
If you don’t like who you are, that’s isn’t the end of the world! There’s a cure for that! Learn, grow, change, be better, and do better! Thankfully this is entirely possible! Humans, we are nothing if not a learning and growing species! Think of the way in which we arrive in this world as helpless, clueless babies, and how we grow and change the world.
Any perceived weaknesses in you is simply an invitation to be better, to push and attain a better you. It isn’t a death sentence. Nothing is more attractive and inspiring as a person who works to improve themselves. I think it’s almost godlike!
So here’s to you. To you being fully you. To examining yourself and doing an honest stocking-taking. To you loving yourself, to you fully embracing yourself, to you having the courage to change that which needs changing, to you shining brightly in the full plumage of your glory as you were meant to.
Here’s to you, my dear friend. All my love and best wishes, always.
