Leave yourself open

I take issue with defining myself. I have difficulty with others defining themselves.

Although I take on many roles in my everyday life I have found that there is only one that I have absolutely no problem defining myself as(that happens to be 'mom'). It is possible that this is through fault of my own in that my mind is quick to assign connotations to any given role. That is the psychological side of things.

From the spiritual perspective, I find that defining oneself can be constrictive to one's spiritual growth. With that said, I would like to share the following words by Thich Nhat Hahn....


It is like a wave. A wave may seem to have a beginning and end. A wave might be seen as high or low, big or small, different or not different from other waves. These terms--beginning, ending, high, low, more or less beautiful--they belong to the dimension called historical, but the wave is at the same time the water. Water transcends the form of the wave, the idea of beginning, ending, high, or low. These notions apply to the wave but not to the water. The moment when the wave realizes that she is water, she loses all her fear and she enjoys much more being a wave. She is free from birth and death, being and non-being, high or low, because when we are able to touch our ultimate dimension, we are no longer subjected to fear-- fear of being; fear of non-being; fear of birth; fear of death.