What does it take? To give ourselves permission to be ... other than the culturally conditioned "self" we're taught to be? What does it take to give ourselves permission to feel ... other than the "appropriate" feelings at the "appropriate" time and length? What does it take to simply be ourselves, and tell the truth?

We hang on to what "is" when the pain of hanging on feels greater than the perceived pain of letting go. Here's what letting go requires...

To stay in the story of what "should" have been would mean that I would have to deprive myself of my own life lessons, thus my own evolution. To stay in the story of what "should" have been would mean to stay in the habit and deny myself the truth of what is. To stay in the story of what "should" have been would mean to sacrifice what is for an idealized, imagined version that isn't. In essence, it would mean I betray the truth that lives inside of me in favour of the story; it would mean pretending, glossing over, shutting down. It would mean self-betrayal. And I don't live like that anymore. 

I take everything that comes to my awareness as an opportunity for growth. Call it disease, call it discomfort, call it life, call it death, call it Covid-19. It really doesn’t matter. It’s all a messenger of how I’m choosing to live my life. And, it’s all an opportunity, in this breath, to make a different choice. An opportunity to make an expansive, meaningful choice that aligns with who and what I know mySelf to be.

In being responsible toward my Self (my calling, my being) I am carefree. Because the responsibility I integrate into my life is that of my choosing...and I'd have it no other way. What I'm talking about here is an internally referenced source of responsibility. 

Living from that space of deep reverence for Life, and indifference to the rest.