I exist as I am - that is enough.
I would find it hard to come up with a more powerful statement than this one by the poet Walt Whitman. In my opinion it is the voice of a self realized man that needs no validation from a world outside his own authentic being. It is a state of consciousness that paradoxically requires no effort and at the same time will cost you everything.
Speaking these words and embodying them at all times requires of us to embark upon a circular path across the highways and byways of our lives to return home to our own front door and in the words of T.S. Elliot, know the place for the first time.
This is a path that moves outward initially, when we join the masquerade of life as we know it. We learn all the right moves, then add our unique interpretations and we dance ourselves into oblivion. When we finally stop spinning, it is not uncommon to be disoriented and unsure of who we are in the absence of the dance and the costumes and the constant movement. This is a moment of choice, when we are stopped in our tracks and opened by life, nudged by that gnawing feeling that there must be more to life than the dance that we have lost ourselves in. In this moment of grace, this silent sanity of exhaustion and possibility, we have a choice to close our eyes and dance to the music that we know or we can choose to break the trance and start the journey back to the land of soul.
The way back home is a sweet unveiling where we mindfully remove every mask and garment that dancing the masquerade requires. It insists that we give up all we think we know and asks us to lay down every single precious veil that conceals the truth of our original being. When all is said and done we stand revealed, spiritually naked, at home with ourselves and completely alive in this beautiful life we were given.
Then, when we have summoned the courage of a lion, dare I say when we become the lion, we will walk straight out of our own front door naked as a moonbeam and declare:
I exist as I am and that is enough!
If your heart desires nothing less than this exquisite unveiling you will find guidance