Defined by Wardrobe

Beauty is attractive, and a certain physicality is esteemed in each culture. In our culture, when we craft our outward appearance, we create our identity. If I believe appearance defines who I am alone or even in part, the slightest change may be devastating. But, if I identify first as a daughter of The Eternal, then I am rooted and buoyed by knowing with a certainty, not of this world, that I am of love. This Love blesses me with peace and joy as I go about my days in this physical world. Appearance is not who I am, but a daughter of our Creator defines me entirely. Appearances will change, no matter the intentional crafting, but the Eternal is the same forever. It grants us a rootedness in Spirit that changing and identifying in the physical can never provide.

Photo by Minh Pham on Unsplash

There are times when I will put on an outfit and it does not feel right. It does not feel like who I am. At other times, I dress to blend in. I want to have an attractive appearance, but not so that I stand out or apart. What I wear may not necessarily suit me but suits the crowd I am with. Some clothes feel like me; others feel like I am play acting, while other clothes don’t suit me at all.

We often dress our body in such a way as to tell ourselves and the world who we are, individually, as well as collectively. We use fashion and make-up, products to remove body hair, diet and exercise, piercings, and tattoos – all these avenues often cost an exorbitant amount of time and money, and it’s all done to create an identity through appearance.

When we are born, we put on a body and this becomes our first identity. Do we choose what body to put on like we choose our clothes or does God select for us the lifetime that we need to best work out our karma and help us to return to Him?

Whichever it is, what we must work out in our minds is that we are not our bodies. We are children of the Eternal. We need do nothing to create who we are. Just as when we pick out an outfit to cover our bodies in, we are not really that article of clothing and what it represents to us in our culture; we are also not what our bodies supposedly represent. We are not male or female, a particular race or culture, fat or thin, healthy or not.

We are all on a path to return to the Divine. Some are more awake than others. The ones who are awake try to shake their siblings awake as well. Those not wanting to wake up get very annoyed and irritated to the point possibly of lashing out. We like our sleep they say – it is comfortable to us. Leave us alone to enjoy it. If only they knew that opening the sleep-encrusted eyes for only a brief moment would show them a world incomparable in joy and peace and prosperity of soul. If they could only glimpse, all would want to awaken and shout for joy! Living in the Divine is not stodgy or boring, it is colorful and wild and free and all that anyone can ever imagine, dream, or desire and then some. I pray that we all awaken from identifying with the physical state and dance in the Divine.