Unzipped

Most of us are encouraged to build a life that has a firm foundation with definite future goals and security. From the time we’re very small, before we’re even halfway through childhood, we’re asked repeatedly what we want to be when we grow up, to predict our adult identity. Despite the fact that we have not tested the vast and illimitable life experiences, prizes, in attention, praise and money, are awarded to those who “stay on track.” Few are those who have the courage to derail from a chosen path – to change a major in college midway, to choose a trade over formalized education, to travel the world, to move away from home, to not create a family, to break off engagements or other plans acceptable to modern society.

Our brain creates grooves when we think a thought or follow an action. The more often we repeat the thought or action, the deeper the groove gets, until we forget why we ever started on that path, it’s just the only path we see – like being stuck at the bottom of the Grand Canyon. A paradigm shift, a drastic change in our surroundings, new information that breaks down an old idea or belief system, a jolt of some kind can wake us up and remind us to stay awake and conscious, to make choices because we chose to, not merely because it’s what we’ve always done.

Nothing in life is ever certain or remains the same. Quantum physics has proven that form itself is an illusion. Control is repellant to the life force that is in perpetual movement. Everything is made of energy, which is in constant motion. Maybe we believe deviation leads to lunacy, uncertainty and if you’re really far out of the box, possibly being ostracized by family and community. Yet acceptance of life’s inherent transitory nature is the only true path to sanity, happiness and peace. We remember we have the power to choose we are brought back into wholeness.

I tap into my authenticity when I travel to conferences, fairs and festivals to sell my books or give talks. At these themed events, whether faerie, renaissance, Celtic or pagan, I feel surrounded by my kin folk – other people who have chosen a life of passion and I drink deep from their eyes, where I am honored for singing my heart song, for being true to myself. Then perhaps most importantly, looking deep into my own eyes, I find unconditional love for my individual spirit. When I bask in this acceptance, I find deep appreciation for life’s gifts that surround me and move through me. In fact, I feel so at home in my own skin that I become unzipped.

To be unzipped means that you shed the masks you wear that make others comfortable, the guises that make you look like everyone else. You are authentically, screamingly, uniquely you. Unzipped means that you’ve let out your free, childlike self and are living in the present moment, in love with life and all that it has to offer. Being unzipped means releasing fear, dissolving blocks, eradicating excuses. To each, being unzipped looks different, but I would venture to say it all feels like you’re riding the back of the wind, at peace with life and ready to make whatever changes necessary to live this way every day, not just on Faire Day. Get out there and become unzipped however you can. Break the paradigm. It’s worth the ride!

(This musing was inspired by my recent trip to San Jose and Pantheacon http://www.pantheacon.com/09/index.php).

Special thanks to William, Angela, Natalie, Diana, Josh, Jo, Tony, Raven, Stephanie, Shannon, Eileen, Jeff, Rees, Carla and Sheree and everyone else I connected with!! You know who you are!