Letting The Armor Fall
Homage To The Summer Element, Fire
Jim Carrey once said,
"Life is so beautiful, especially when I'm absent from it. Don't get me wrong, Jim Carrey is a great character, and I was lucky to get the part, but I don't think of that as me anymore. I used to be a guy who was experiencing the world and now I feel like the world and universe experiencing a guy. So there's kind of been a shift.
That peace that we're after lies beyond personality, beyond the perception of others, beyond invention and disguise, even beyond effort itself. You can join the game, fight the wars, play with form all you want, but to find real peace, you have to let the armor fall.
Don't let anything stand in the way of the light that shines through this form. Risk being seen in all of your glory. You will only ever have two choices - love or fear. Choose love, and don't ever let fear turn you against your playful heart."
Think for a moment of a child, a joyful wild Soul, free to express, playing, creating, and exploring. Can you see the fire within that child’s Soul? A child lit up for all of life, from the smallest rolly polly to the “beauty of a flower,” as my son would say. Each moment is awe struck and bright like the wonder of fire, crackling and changing in the winds of time.
The elements, Earth, Water, Air, and Fire are a spiritual essence reminding us of our own connection to Nature and the elements within us. When the elements are in balance, we reap the benefits both externally and internally. When the elements are out of balance we have opportunity to understand and even to welcome our own healing, recalibrating and shifting ourselves with the alchemical medicine of the element.
Summer boasts with the element of Fire, that of the giant flaming ball in the sky, the Sun, providing longer days and heat. Fire symbolizes transformation and regeneration, burning away the old to make way for the new. The element of fire is of transmutation. Its energy is dynamic and active, even pushing for change and progress. The fire element in its purest form is a symbol of life, warmth, and light, and when uncontrolled, it can also represent destruction and chaos. We see this in Nature, and we experience this in our own nature.
Fire can connect us to our innocence, to our inner child’s curiosity and delight, to the magic of present moment living. Children are masters at present moment living. What teachers we have with us here on Earth, these children, if only we allow the wisdom of the youth to remind us of how to remain open minded — if only we return to our own inner fire and playful heart.
Ruefully, the light of our fire becomes dimmed and suffocated from life’s circumstances, traumas, environmental factors and the way we grew up as children. To me, the healing process is a rekindling of the flame of our Soul — we are returning to our innate highest good, remembering the beauty of our being as we mend and clear the blockages and interferences from our fire.
Without knowing what is creating the impasse or suffering, we cannot change. Thus, the ancient practices of awareness, mindfulness and awakening our consciousness support our healing. Out of our own familiarity with our pain, we often do not take the risks, the leap of faith, to truly know who we are. It is uncomfortable to shake up our idea of safety — of how we have been identifying ourselves. Like Carrey mentions, “beyond personality, beyond the perception…” beyond the masks and illusions of who we think we are must fall.
We have to let the armor fall.
The unraveling is messy. The remembering is a composting, digesting and alchemy of who we think we are. I know this both personally and professionally. Our relationships will change, with ourselves first and most significantly, and with others, and with how we relate to the world.
The path is unknown in its terrain. There will be switchbacks to hike, valleys to cross, large expanses of water to swim, sinkholes to navigate, deserts to endure, peaks to climb and caves to light. How the path reveals itself to you remains a mystery. For to de-robe yourself, to trust that you will be ok letting your armor go is the greatest leap of courage you will ever take.
Your fire, smothered at times, holds embers awaiting the breath of your heart to awaken them.
There is a power within you.
I know you have felt it, even if for a tiny moment fluttering through.
I know a part of you remembers it. It lives in all of us, and touches each of us in its own unique way. You stepping into your vulnerability, your playful heart, keeps your fire burning bright into the darkest hours.
Pema Chodron says,
"Times are difficult globally; awakening is no longer a luxury or an ideal. It’s becoming critical. We don’t need to add more depression, more discouragement, or more anger to what’s already here. It’s becoming essential that we learn how to relate sanely with difficult times. The earth seems to be beseeching us to connect with joy and discover our innermost essence. This is the best way that we can benefit others.
Self Inquiry Prompt
So today, I ask you how is your relationship to your playful heart, to your fire?
Really. How it is? On a scale of 1, suffocated, to 10, abundant, where do you land? Be as truthful as you can, knowing this will continue to unravel with the seasons just as you do with your own seasons of change within.
Think back to what feels like play to you? Maybe go all the way back to your childhood. What called to your senses, awoke your curiosity, sparked your inner flame in your heart?
When was the last time you had a belly laugh, tears rolling down your face, muscles aching from giggling?
What passion projects fill your mind, greet you like an old friend, but perhaps you push them away? Maybe ones you have never shared with others, even your closest loved ones? What is holding you back?
Now, imagine the thing that is holding you back is gone, what is holding you back, really? Go deeper. Get clear.
Your Fire Is Needed
The creative spark and rawness of you — real, funky, empowered in your emotions, your heart, awkward in your human form (cause that happens), and radiant being is needed.
The armor you have been wearing, though protective, has a shelf life. This big, beautiful life that is yours, while you are here rooted to the soils of this spinning planet in a cosmic system beyond our comprehension, awaits you; beseeching you to reclaim and rekindle the flame within, to welcome home your playful heart.
I don’t know about you, but sometimes I think we need to be reminded and prompted into remembering we are more than we think we are.
Perhaps in this moment you can offer yourself permission to sense, feel or imagine the letting go of a part of your armor.
Imagine the possibilities…
Thanks for being here.
Take care of you.
Take care of one another.
Much Love,
Kristina Renée
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Gonna sit with the essence of these words for a bit. Thank you🥰