A proclamation for a few

"Christian, Jew, Muslim, shaman, Zoroastrian, stone, ground, mountain, river, each has a secret way of being with the mystery, unique and not to be judged"     - Rumi

Maybe you’ve gathered that I’m pagan. Maybe we met recently and I introduced myself to you as Dove. Maybe we’ve shared sacred space together. Maybe you knew me on Maui. Maybe you’re family, just trying to understand me a bit better. If any of what I've just said comes as a surprise, then this post was made just for you. This writing was born out of personal necessity and I’d like to get it out of the way so that I can get on to writing about things that really matter to me without you wondering where the heck that came from or getting offended. Maybe that won’t happen at all and I’m just projecting, again. But you can see, just the idea of writing what I want has made me a little neurotic.

I choose the name Dove, primarily among close friends and my spiritual community, because doves serve as a reminder to me of the inherent sanctity and perfection within us all; they are pure, innocent, and sacred. One flew over Christ at his baptism. In Greek mythology, doves draw the chariot of Aphrodite, the Goddess of love. The Hindu god, Yama used doves as messengers, and the Japanese god of war, Hackiman, used doves to announce the end of war. They are understood cross-culturally as symbols of peace and compassion. For me, they bridge the gap between my Christian upbringing and my pagan reality. One of my goals for the year is to write more and that includes this blog. I've spent a lot more time making it look nice, than I've spent writing on it because I've refrained from writing about themes that really inspire me. That changes here. I choose to be Dove instead of Shari here in this webspace, because I created this space to express myself from a place of spiritual integration, and being Dove is a part of that. If that makes you uncomfortable, then lets just be Facebook friends. 

I don’t want to write about what I believe in or why. I have absolutely no interest in explaining myself. (If you really want to know more, just read the quote above. That pretty much sums it up.) I just want to write without there being this line, this boundary that I won’t let others cross, the line that shows you who I really am and what I really believe in. Having any sort of limitation, hinders your ability to really express fully from the heart. It’s stupid to live in the United States and not express yourself and truly be who you were born to be, even in spite of your friends and your family and the people you love. And after years of struggling against my natural inclination to hide, I realize that it is frighteningly easy to play that game in a place where everyone has the liberty to think and believe and do whatever the heck they want. I don’t need to be accepted by you. I need to be liberated from my fear of not being accepted by you. And that’s all this is, a simple letting go, so that I can get closer to being me. It's still a work in progress.