un-JUST-ification
just.
- based on or behaving according to what is morally right and fair (adjective)
- simply; only; no more than. (adverb). limited
- used as a polite formula for giving permission or making a request.
- possibly (used to indicate a slight chance of something happening or being true).
Okay, wow.
So by definition, to justify is to prove something (or someone) to be right. It is to show, or to qualify, or to judge; specifically as it relates to sufficiency in reason or worth.
But friends, when did we decide that we would so politely start qualifying our statements with this word? When did it become so permissible to minimize our likelihood or possibilities of getting what we need, or what we deserve? When did we decide we needed to start justifying ourselves to them? And who the heck are they, anyways?
Examples of JUST-ification, as seen in real life:
“I just wanted to follow up on my last e-mail…”
“I was just wondering if you had a chance to work on this yet…”
“I just didn’t want you to think I was mad at you…”
Painful as it may be, take a minute to reflect on how many texts, requests, and e-mails you have sent using this polite softening. Who is it really for? I propose to you our subject here is not in fact your boss, or the recipient of that last work e-mail. The reality is our justification is bcc’d to our inner critics; it is primarily addressed to ourselves. Our thirst and quest for justification poses and answers the same question: “Is it — or are we — good enough?”
Our thirst and quest for justification poses and answers the same question: “Am I good enough?”
What is the difference in giving ourselves permission vs. doing something because it is right? If you’re like me, we have taken baby steps to even get here, to the edge of the cliff where we can see that we have and host the innate ability to sign our own permission slips. For the first time, maybe the stars have swirled and compass aligned to where you can look up and finally find the answers you seek are all in your mind; We no longer need our parents or our families or our peers or even our teachers to sign off on our field trips. Inside of you, innately, is a being that exists in full sovereignty. As humans, we exist intrinsically linked in community. One affects all, and all affects one. Even if you define yourself as someone who operates fully independently, take a beat to think about how life on Earth and even our galaxy, our solar system, our Universe is so rhythmically interdependent of the all and the one.
Everything is intrinsically connected. The same symmetry is found in the stars as in the cells. We exist as both the macrocosm and the microcosm. We need each other like we need oxygen. And yet, our journey here is so individually specific. Your life, your mission, your purpose, are all so beautifully and individually defined. It is like children’s art hanging up in lines around the walls of classrooms; each one is beautiful and individual and so specific. In each creation, you can see the heavenly colors of their lives and interests and personalities. You can see the beautiful dichotomy that exists between spheres (and hemispheres, and the prefrontal cortex).
You can listen and hear the Earth and our existence calls and speaks to each one of them so differently. Wave after wave of consistent Cosmic energy can be emitted as a frequency, and based on an individual’s makeup and receptivity, it will come out as an entirely different sound. Millions upon millions of instruments, creating unique moments of resonance. A symphony of sound. It’s absolutely magnificent. Every person who is alive or has ever been (or ever will be) has had their own unique, individual experience. And yet, we are all woven of different silks into the same tapestries. Into each as different colored threads we wind and intertwine our stories into wildly colored patterns and beautiful patchwork blankets. Up close, the patchwork looks separate, and you can see the distinctions and lines more readily, but as you zoom out..and out…and further your perspective… you will see that they come to all form one much more beautiful concrete, composite image; a masterpiece mosaic.
And so, as we start to venture out into the universe on this beautiful, textured field trip, we look up and out at where we are going, and reflect back on where we have been. We think about life as this beautiful, exquisite adventure that is here for us to experience. Jesus Christ, this life is gorgeous.
Feel into the Cosmic Energy and vibration that fills every space, in and all around you. Hear it’s crackling energy that surrounds all of us, remembering it exists no differently than the phenomenal light waves that roll off the sun as the aurora borealis. (Are you listening? Can you feel it?). They aren’t always observable, and yet they are here. Remember… the difference in beholding and merely watching is that it’s participative. Behold the glory and wonder.
So, now I come back to this point I was making about light waves.
Though we can’t see them, we know they are here. Though we can’t always measure (at least, until we’ve developed the technology), we know they are with us. We observe the unimaginable day in and day out, and so our imagination must eventually start to give. We observe, with great aspect, so that as our evidence starts to build, we must change and shift our null hypothesis along with it. As we broaden our lens through which we see the world, we start to develop a fuller picture.
As with the telescopes that helped image the first black hole, we cannot alone envelope the full picture; we must work as a collective to gather much evidence, from many different vantage points, to reflect the light that’s scattered, by focusing on one truth (point. North) so that we may glance at things from a different (higher) perspective. Through each looking glass, like each child’s artwork, we come to line the hallways with our multi-colored lenses, and begin to map out the individual and wholistic perspective of the human experience.
By sharing our medium like a child — unadulterated, unencumbered modes of self-expression — we start to see a truer collective come into form.
The Universal call we have on our life is to receive that call, and in response, to pour out all we have back into the Universe. We must color the skies of our cielos and heavens with our own unique and uninhibited experiences. We are asked to be like children — true, wide-eyed, and pure— to create our pinturas from our most honest and truest perspective.
When we each shine our light on Earth from our truest perspective (through the medium and modality of self-expression), it is only then that we can start to create a composite image of what life is. We are all assisting in obtaining new data to feed into the collective consciousness of what reality is, by reflection on our unique lived experiences.
Let’s take a real example of how our awareness expands.
Since Einstein first postulated black holes, we have progressed our understanding to know that they do exist, but until recently the world has not had a way to image or measure them. Fascinating as they are mysterious, black holes have puzzled scientists and amateur stargazers alike — as modern society, we have no idea what a black hole really is, nor do we have any way of knowing what lays on the other side of the event horizon. However, we are now moving into a truer perspective, built by the collaboration, connection, and information sharing collected by all of humanity. The Event Horizon Telescope collaboration produced the first-ever image of a black hole, which lies at the center of the M87 galaxy 55 million light-years from Earth.
Our shared efforts make a difference in the world. Our world makes a difference in the outcome for humanity. Humanity, and outcomes here on Earth, matter. What happens here affects life everywhere, and it is important we remember that we are working together for the greater good. There are cosmic balances and forces beyond our understanding. Perhaps the greatest lesson we can take from here is to never lose Hope. It is one of our greatest gifts we’ve been given as humanity.
We each shine the light of our own experience. We sing the rhythm of our own great perspective. Each musical note forms a chord, and from a chord a rhythm, and from a rhythm, a melody, and from each combination we start to form a new song. Each part flows and comes to be (exist) in a new (form) harmony.
Harmony is the interweaving. It is the pleasing effect of causality, the blending together of all, to create one accord. Harmony is balance in the Universe. Harmony allows for the progression of chords; it is not similar or stagnant. Harmony celebrates the diversity of the all, and weaves it back into the interconnected oneness. Harmony is not just a bridge… it is both sides of the land, the air, the water, and everything in between that connects us. To see Harmony as just a bridge is missing the point. Harmony is confluence of everything that is keeping us together. Harmony is the ocean and the wave and the drop, all at once. Harmony is the point and the line. Harmony is the particle and the wave. Harmony is understanding the nature of the universe (is not to divide but to wander). What Harmony points to is that the nature of our universe does NOT exist in Duality but in Allness. In ONEness.
Harmony is primarily a matter of perspective. From how far out are you looking? If all you see is disparate parts, then you must not be high enough (far enough, in dimension) to see them for what they are — which is intrinsically connected.
If there’s one mission that I have on this Earth, it’s to help us all see how we are intrinsically connected. Harmony is the mission that has brought me. Harmony is the balanced forces of the universe, all singing from their best and brightest and truest perspective. Harmony is trusting ourselves and our art(forms) and knowing that just being ourselves is what always creates our best and truest and most fun and creative work. It is our unique, authentic, intrinsic perspective.
There is no shame in something a child creates.
When I was little, I lacked the ability to color inside the lines. Try as I might, I could never get my colored pencils or crayons to be as crisp or as sharp as the thick black outlines by Callie Mall. I swear that even when I used a ruler, she somehow had straighter, more perfect, more “good” artwork than I could, even when I tried my heart out. I guess at some point I let go of the idea that I could be good. My artwork would never look like Callie’s. I got straight A’s in school but B’s or Unsatisfactory in Art and in Handwriting. I assumed it was because I couldn’t stay inside of those damned thick black lines. But in reality, I’m wondering if it’s because I was truly holding back my real abilities… my real perspective. If in my efforts to be good, I forgot how to be me? Does this sound familiar?
There were also the kids that would probably today call themselves “Creatives”. Their art wasn’t so crisp or so perfectly defined as Callie’s. They were big, bold patterned displays with bright colors and so far outside of what others thought could be created. The kind of childhood artists who would draw a self-portrait of themselves as a monkey or a tomato. It made no sense, is what I’m trying to say. They did not take a literal perspective on the assignment. “Oh good!” The teacher would exclaim. “Class, look at what Lindee made! It’s a hermit crab who’s living in a shell that’s an airstream trailer.” Twelve-year old me was wondering what in the hell that hermit crab had to do with the “Draw your House” assignment.
It would be years ahead before I started to realize that the assignment wasn’t always something we had to take literally. It would be ten to fifteen years before I figured out how to emulate the style of drawing my house as a hermit crab or myself as a tomato to feign points with my boss or co-workers that I was (and should be seen as) CREATIVE. That golden fucking crown that seems to win everybody access to the coolest projects, the highest praise, and the most raises. It would be many moons more of dismantling before I came to see that I could draw my house however the fuck I wanted.
I took some online quiz that a Life Coach sent me on determining if / how you were Creative. I think I scored that I was in the 98–99% percentile of people in terms of “How Creative I am”. Honestly, I am still unsure if that’s because I answered truthfully, or because I have gotten really good at figuring out how to B.S. it.
If you’re nervous, don’t panic.
The reality is, WE ALL are really creative. Creative is a word that has been so used and abused, and hijacked by a performance driven culture that we have forgotten what it really even means to be creative.
Being Creative is — by definition — to bring something into existence. What have you brought into existence today? Maybe it was a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Maybe it was a weird squeaky fart that made you laugh, cause you’ve never really heard anything quite like it! Maybe it was a daydream you had in your head, or a moment of peace or silence you held over your PB&J before you bit into it. These are ridiculous yet honest example of how we as humans can be creative. I considered going back and refining it, trying to come up with something more real or true or deeper, better ones…but for the point I’m making here, wouldn’t that have been counter intuitive? The point is that it doesn’t really matter what you make, or even how you’re making it. The point is that you’re making it. We are all here. By the fact you are in existence, then you are automatically being creative. We are all created and creative at all times. There’s no getting around it or escaping it.
So let me get us back to the point here, which is around being just vs. just being. (I bet you thought I’d forgotten this, huh?).
Being Just means striving to be good. It means looking to others, even if that other is God or Source or Consciousness, to sign our extracurricular permission slips. Being Just means that we are in constant need of Judging; someone to grant us the approval or validation that we are being good. That we are worthy. That our artwork deserves a spot up on the wall. That our communication was good enough. That our position is secure. Being Just means that we can never really rest, because me must constant strive for what it is (what it means) to Become.
Just Being means that we are. We accept that we are right, exactly as we come. We don’t have to worry about being good enough. We don’t have to seek any external OR internal validation. Just Being means that we are at rest. We create from the sabbath. We act from that state of just being; Just Being means that we are what we are. We are holy. We are peaceful. We are at rest. Ehye ašer ehye. I AM THAT I AM.
Be who you are.
It’s exquisite.