Tired of Wearing a Mask

A friend sent me a gif of Snoopy lying on his back on top of his Snoopy house, belly turned right up to the sky and rain pouring down on him. I replied to the gif:

“OMG I luuuuuuuuuuuuurve Snoopy the best.”

And my friend replied:

“I want to be in my own cartoon where I don’t have to go to work and can just be myself all the time. Make my own food and just live, be happy. Maybe I want too much from life I’m not sure.”

The reply roused all my Aries passion and fire. Why? Because it spoke to the core of my own journey, why I opted out of corporate London and then out of ‘normal’ life.

I wanted work to feel like play and I wanted to play every day! I wanted to stop putting on a mask, day in and day out, keeping up appearances in the office. I just wanted to be myself!

And, as time has gone on, living more and more simply has become more and more important to me. To live simply, to contribute what I have to offer and to be happy.

So when my friend sent me this message, it just made me think, ‘No, you’re not asking too much from life!’

There is something wrong if we think that wanting to be ourselves all day every day is asking too much.

There is something wrong if we think wanting to live slower, quieter, healthier, happier lives is asking too much.

There is something wrong if the work we have to do to pay the bills and live in this world goes against our values, our soul and the callings of our heart.

And when I say ‘wrong’ I don’t really mean wrong, because what is wrong is somehow also always right.

And when I say right, I don’t mean that it should continue forever that way. What I mean is that it is simply the way it is until it isn’t that way anymore. Because life is always in transition. It’s always evolving. As we grow in consciousness, the world changes.

And right now, in this moment of being alive on planet earth, we are in a movement away from that old story of having to be something we are not and having to give our time and our energy to work that feels as though it’s strangling and suffocating us.

We’re moving into a new story – the so-called cartoon! Part of that new story is getting to be who we are. But it’s not about not working. It’s about a redefinition of work. It’s about doing what is joyful to you, trusting that this joy is in service to the planet at this time.

And every time someone new, somewhere in the world, starts to believe a little bit more in the possibility of living in the cartoon, they add fuel to the process of change that is already underway and light the way for others.

To step in to the new story, we have to step out of the old story. And for a while, we may flounder as we find our way in the new land. We may doubt ourselves and our choices a hundred times a day.

Others, still entrenched in the old ways, will think you mad and unrealistic and silly. But those who choose differently have always been called crazy.

Being called crazy might be the the price we pay for freedom, for living in our joy, for living in our own cartoon. We might have to pay that price over and over again. But really, it is such a small price to pay for waking up each day and getting to be who you are, no more masks, offering your joy to the world.

Love and courage,

Leah