“I’m not the wound, I’m not the fall.  Not the silence, not the wall.  I’m not the night they couldn’t see.  I’m the best me, rising free.  I’m not what happened to me.  I’m what I choose to be.  Each step I take, I shift, rise.  The past dissolves before my eyes. Not the moment, not the mark. I am more than what went dark.  I hold the sun behind my skin.  I plant the truth and grow within.  I’m not what happened to me. I’m what I choose to be.  Each breath I take, I shift, I rise. The story ends, the soul flies.  I’m not what happened to me,”  Good Vibes Tribe 11:11.  We need this reminder.  We’ve been trained to cling to our mistakes like they’re who we are.  As if any mistake we make needs to be branded on us like a scarlet letter of sorts, always reminding us and the world of what we’ve done.  We created a society that likes extremes so we tend to fixate on those who do something really bad or those who do something really good—and it’s even better when someone who usually is good is doing something bad.  We like it when people don’t live up to our expectations and really make a mess because we can look at their character and actions instead of our own.  We can sit there and be grateful it isn’t us.  But I want to talk about this concept of forgiveness and the idea that maybe we don’t have to live as our mistakes even if we have to live with them.

Human are powerful in so many ways, imagine what would happen if we released every block on our hearts, minds, and souls and simply allowed ourselves the grace to be.  What if we let go of the hatred we hold for ourselves so we stop lashing out at others?  What if we forgave our mistakes so no one could lord them over us?  What if we took our power back?  Humans live an entire span of life that moves so much faster than we realize that it makes NO sense whatsoever to define a lifetime by a single moment.  Groupthink makes us feel powerful because we can come together as a collective and share a common opinion/thought on something even if that something is someone else.  When we remember our own power and realize that their thoughts aren’t reality and that we control the narrative we break that shackle of judgement right off. No one has walked in our shoes so what gives anyone the right to judge in the first place?  The lyrics shared at the beginning of this piece felt so appropriate, especially in a time when everyone is now focused on pushing ahead.  The point isn’t to hide what we’ve done or to pretend it never happened—it’s to learn and if we dwell there or shove it so far down we forgot it exists, we miss the point.  We are all here for a lesson:

We get to choose who we are and what we do.  We define our success and failures.  If we are certain we’ve done our part well, that’s all that’s needed.  We get to set ourselves free when we forgive anything we believed we needed to carry around as a constant reminder and we free up all that mental space to use that energy for something amazing—the fullest expression of who we are.  We transcend any blocks or limitations we put on ourselves because someone told us we should.  We become light for someone else to do the same so they can be a light and so on and so on until the world is ignited with purpose and hope and joy.  Once we decide to let go of the darkness and release the weight of the veil between then and now, we become limitless.  I’m tired of cutting off the buds of truth I’ve planted over and over again because something triggers me to feel lost in what happened before.  It’s time to let that seed sprout and grow into an entire garden.  Nothing grows in the dark and nothing remains hidden forever so we must learn to stop casting our own shadow and living there.  We are not what happens to us, we are what we decide to be.