Taking pointers from the mighty sequoia…
To be “grounded in our truth” is to know our truth, speak our truth, and act on our truth.
Sometimes we may find it nearly impossible to know what our truth is, as we live out truths for other people, or for society. Mostly we were filled with rules, customs, and beliefs that belong to another time, another generation, another sensibility.
These may be antiquated notions of what it means to be a strong woman, or a compassionate man.
They may be current concerns over what it means to be “other” or what it means to belong.
Sometimes we learned to care for other people’s feelings, often at the expense of clarity over our own experience.
Within each of us a soul is yearning to express itself, to actualize, to be fully and wholly itself. And feel fully and wholly seen, heard, and recognized.
This is your truth.
(If soul isn’t your bag, you can call it your personality, your self, your YOU at the core.)
Why is it so hard sometimes to be grounded in our truth?
Somewhere along the way, each of us felt the sting of separation. We learned what it meant not to belong. And at a primal level, not belonging threatens our very survival.
Somewhere along the way, each of us learned how to dim our light in the company of certain others, or we learned how to keep quiet.
Somewhere along the way, we learned how to support the needs or vision of another over our own; we learned to take a step back.
Knowing Your Truth
Your truth might be burning a hole in your pocket right now like a cashed paycheck on Friday night. It might be the desire that fuels your every waking moment, gets you up and going, and keeps you chattering to everyone who’ll listen to you about it.
Chances are though, that your truth got buried under some dirty laundry on the floor of your closet. But it’s there. If you get really, really quiet, you might coax it out into the open, take a good look at it, dust it off a little and invite it to the table. (Or the meditation chair.)
Take a tip from the sequoia:
Stand up tall. Practice patience. Be resolved. Reach towards the light.
Braving Your Truth
Wowzers can it be scary to speak your truth, especially to people whose opinions matter to you (and which may differ from your own).
Many of us learned to hide our freak flags, and bury our truth. Conversely, we didn’t learn how to be brave and bold, to speak loudly and forcefully.
We may have learned to shout, but not to bare the contents of the heart. Instead, we blame, we duck and cover, we zig zag.
Braving your truth can feel like walking on coals. But then we do it once, we find out we won’t die, and each time it gets a little easier.
Take a tip from the sequoia:
Fire can cleanse or destroy. In the case of the sequoia, it is necessary for the species to continue.
Sharing Your Truth
In this polarized world we live in, we may find we speak our truth in a vacuum. Our words ringing hollow in the echo chamber.
Or we may say why bother, when someone else is doing a fine job of speaking for me?
Your truth is yours alone. It belongs to no one else. It can only be expressed by you and through you.
Your truth is the key to who you are. It is the key to why you are, and why you should bother to get out of bed each day.
Take a tip from the sequoia:
The key to the sequoia’s longevity is the grove. These giant trees withstand devastating fires, mudslides, and furious winds because their shallow roots are interlocked with the roots of their fellow travelers.
We find the courage, the stability, and the fortitude to live our truth from within the grove.
Whose roots are interlocked with yours? Give ‘em a shout out, a high five, a hug.
And dust off that freak flag. Your truth needs to be seen and heard by us, and lived fully by you.
Want more on how to stay grounded through it all? Read this. Or read more about the symbolism of the sequoia here.
If you would like to explore this topic in retreat with me, join me for Inner Sanctuary on Sunday, May 19th at 11am Pacific. Grab your ticket here.