Spiritual amnesia. My definition for it is simple. It’s not knowing who you are. Now, sit with that for a moment. Who are you? And before you are quick to say I’m this person’s mom, wife, teacher, coach and any of the roles you play, drop down a little deeper. Can you hear your own voice?
You’re Not Alone
Just when I think I am clear about who I am, something happens to challenge it. In my case, it was a storm–a doozy of a storm–that shook me in a terrifying and helpless way. It was the kind of storm that hits you like a tidal wave and before you can get your bearings another wave crashes over you, then another and another. That’s when everything you thought you knew gets carried away and all that is left is another question: Why did this happen?
Sadly, instead of waiting for our Higher Intelligence to kick in, we attempt to retrace our steps, our decisions, and what we believed that is now being called into question. Again, you’re not alone. Humankind for as long as I can remember has struggled with the why’s of life that beat apart our self-definition like the storm I described. Look at the story of Adam and Eve, for example. Things were going along just fine until that fateful day when Eve took a bite out of some fruit. I’m sure that she and Adam revisited every step, every decision and every belief that led up to their demise.
In my mind’s eye, I can see them arguing, debating, Eve crying, Adam pacing, blaming each other at first, then blaming themselves. I can see this going on for hours and even for days until they are too exhausted to do it anymore so they put their energies into doing what they feel they have to do to survive.
Wonder what would have happened if they had taken a little more time to reflect? Maybe Eve would have sat up, shook Adam awake and said, “I get it! I now get why that tree was forbidden!” Then she’d go on to tell him.
The Biggest Truth
In Marianne Williamson’s poem, “Our Deepest Fear,” she reveals the answer:
Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light not our darkness that most frightens us.
Eve would tell Adam that it wasn’t like the serpent said. They weren’t blind. They weren’t less than God. They weren’t lacking anything.
Regardless to what your faith base is, we all grapple with the same questions. When something bad happens, we ask what did we do wrong. When someone rejects us, we ask if we are enough. When we feel powerless, we ask who we are.
If we can stop listening to the serpents in our lives and go down deep inside where Truth resides, we won’t eat the lie that we’re deficient, that something is being withheld, or that someone else is trying to control our lives. We’ll tap into our Power, that quiet confidence that resides in all who are courageous enough to claim it.