--Lao-tzu
I like this quote because it reminds me that all life is sacred. As part of the universe this means our lives are sacred and I think sometimes that we forget this, or live in such a way that this dimension of our lives is all but invisible.
But what would our lives look like if we lived with a conscious awareness of this sacredness?
The Oxford English Dictionary links the word sacred with 'holy'. My thesaurus goes further to make connections with words such as 'revered', 'inviolable' and 'sacrosanct'. My own sense of sacred relates directly to the word 'respect' which I think all the above words imply in one way or another.
If we were to treat our lives, and by extension the lives of others, as though they were sacred and worthy of our respect and reverence, perhaps (as an example) the anxious scripts encouraging us to alter the colour of our hair or the shape of our bodies in the name of beauty and acceptability would be re-examined.
Beauty is understood and expressed in very diverse ways in cultures around the world revealing our perceptions of beauty to be very malleable. Having the option, why not become curious about the possibility that beauty is inherent, not something that we have to turn ourselves inside out to achieve?
Playing with colour, shape and design is one thing, enslaving ourselves to rigid definitions of beauty that fail to respect its diversity is another.
We could suspend our judgments of others and become a little more curious and, perhaps, even inspired instead.
Beauty is understood and expressed in very diverse ways in cultures around the world revealing our perceptions of beauty to be very malleable. Having the option, why not become curious about the possibility that beauty is inherent, not something that we have to turn ourselves inside out to achieve?
Playing with colour, shape and design is one thing, enslaving ourselves to rigid definitions of beauty that fail to respect its diversity is another.
We could suspend our judgments of others and become a little more curious and, perhaps, even inspired instead.
If we honour the sacredness of our lives, this may mean a gentler, less abusive approach to dressing and making ourselves up in the morning. It may entail a re-examination of the values driving current behaviour that are making us sick with stress. It may also mean treading a little more lightly on the earth.
I think we need to loosen our grip on life a little. I think we need to let it move and flow, and try to move and flow with it.
Isn't it a sacred dance really?
When we try to control things, we reveal that we think we have a better idea about how the universe should be and isn't. Lao-tzu seems to say this is a mistaken notion, one that creates as many problems as it hopes to solve.
All life is sacred. Yours, mine, the bum on the street, the drunk on the corner, the trees on the mountainside.
The compartmentalization of sacredness only succeeds in creating an artificial division that robs us, of the reverence and respect that every life requires and is inherently worthy of.
Live like the goddess you are!
It's all sacred.
