Naked Freedom!

Today I invited someone from my previous life to sit across the table from me and share a meal.

In truth I asked him to share more than food; his ideas about God, sin, guilt and shame too, and not only with me, but my university class as well.

It's been almost ten years since I last saw my former professor, and while the pain and betrayal I experienced in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America was not associated with him, inviting his theology and teachings still rooted in that doctrine to be on my turf and in my presence, was liberating.

YA-HOO!

Autonomy of forgiveness is important to me; choosing from our inner wisdom what it means to forgive and when we are ready to release the anger, pain and hurt received from the actions of others.

Over the holidays I had numerous dreams filled with characters who had made choices that harmed me. For several nights in a row they appeared, not as the perpetrators of their negative choices, but as normal, even friendly people.

So I tuned-in to my body and asked: Am I ready to release? I heard a full body yes. RELEASE!

Since ritual is in my blood and bones I knew I wanted to ritually honor the release. But how?

Around that time I had been drawing a lot of gorgeous, full, lovely lips. Lips that had, in the middle of their pout, intricate designs of nature; swirls, eyes, feathers, stars, wisps of light. I loved these active, feminine speaking lips. I decided they would be a beautiful gesture of release.

I reproduced them and wrote underneath “Peace and Love in 2014” and signed my name. I meant it.

I put them in envelopes addressed to locations I hoped were still accurate, and released them to the U.S. Postal Service.

And I felt – SPACIOUS! I had sketched, created and sent those Lips in Love of me, letting go of any negative power any one previous act by another had over me. The result was more room for new adventure, risk and giggly, silly, buoyant joy. Oh ya! This affect was in no way dependent on the response or actions of another – it was all me. I had the power. I owned the responsibility.

Sitting in my classroom today with my former Professor and openly discussing our differences while claiming our common ground, was beautiful. Another act of clearing out and making room.

Over lunch I told him about my Spring Teleseminar series “The Narrative Closet" - of course he thought it ROCKED!- where I talk with incredible women visionaries about the closets we all have, filled with stories we have been told about who are, who we ought to be and how the world works. Stories of being wronged hang in their too.

We all have these closets of stories, the very recognition of which is the first step to getting naked and claiming our authentic power. Goose-bumps Galore!

“We have the Power!” and responsibility, to clear the clutter from our narrative closets and make space for new designs that fit who we are and who we want to become. Including those stories we keep hanging around about the old hurts, wounds and deep pains.

What about you? What old story about a hurt do you keep hanging around? Try this: take it out of your narrative closet and try it on. Listen to your body. Pay attention to your wisdom-gut response, the beat of your pulse, the heat in your cheeks. You will know when it's ready to slide from your shoulders. Maybe you are even ready to release it for good.

Either way, you can do a Spirit-Shimmy! A Big-Woop-to-me-Boogie! Because just seeing the closet of stories is the first step into your naked unstoppable power.