Oxygen

“Self-respect is to the soul as oxygen is to the body. Deprive a person of oxygen, and you kill his body; deprive him of self-respect and you kill his spirit"...(Thomas S. Szasz). There are many ways people are deprived of self respect. Sometimes people create their own misery, doubting themselves so much that they lose all respect for themselves. Other times, people are in relationships with others who disrespect them continuously...until the person believes the lies that have been told to them. Either way, when you allow others to influence how you see yourself, you are giving your power away. Once you can clearly see that and reflect deeply about who you really are, then incredible changes are possible. Sometimes the process of honoring yourself is slow and may appear impossible to attain. I came across a plainly painted drum...called Father Sky. The artist had painted it an azure blue....and mounted a feather on the sides of the drum, representing freedom and flight. The drum seemed simple, yet in the depth of the blue, I saw potential, expansiveness and the symbolic message that anything is possible. That drum remained unsold however and it remained hanging on the artists wall. When I went back recently to pick up my new drum, she showed me how Father Sky had changed. She had several dreams and journeys, telling her that Father Sky now needed more work. This time, she used acrylic paints instead of the translucent Indian ink and now the drum radiates change, complexities and interestingly, self respect. How can a drum radiate self respect you may ask? Before, it was a work in progress even though the artist thought it was complete. It sat on her wall untouched for a year until it beckoned her to work on it again. She hesitated to revisit the drum, believing that it was done and was just awaiting the right buyer. She finally listened to her gut, beckoning her to rework the drum. Her intuition prompted her to paint over the plain blue and now the drum has wind and clouds painted across it. The thicker paint reflects a new depth and the tone of the drum has shifted profoundly. Working on that drum made her confront some of her own father issues that she had thought she had put to rest. In fact, the drum taught her that one's work may never be complete and to respect the process of growth. Isn't father sky a metaphor for life. Sometimes it appears that you are not growing or shifting, yet nothing can be further than the truth. Sometimes, in the calm and quiet, we are shifting the most. In addition, father sky beckons us to pick up the paint brush in ourselves and never hesitate to add some more color, depth and detail, when our deepest selves are ready for a shift. The drum reflects our journey of growth....from appearing one dimensional until we are ready for movement. Life teaches us the most sometimes when we are just breathing even as we struggle to respect our own feelings until we take flight. The feather on the drum represents the possibility of freedom at any time. The drum beautifully depicts the journey of self respect and about coming into one's own. Oxygen is the breath of life and gives us hope that change is always at hand, like the sky on any given day that may go from clear to cloudy in a blink of an eye. Don't ever believe that the impossible isn't possible. Change and growth, like breath, isn't visible until the time is right and like the wind...it blows in all sorts of new possibilities. “What oxygen is to the lungs, such is hope to the meaning of life"...(Emil Brunner).