Blending is Not Belonging

Standing up for yourself takes courage.

Standing up for other people takes courage. 

Standing up for what you believe in takes courage.

Putting yourself out there in any way publicly takes courage.

Courage is needed because other people have opinions. Other people have big ideas and expectations for how they want you to live. It takes courage to be yourself fully in this world because complete strangers have become very comfortable with telling you how much they disapprove of you. Why do we care though? Why do we care so much about what others think that some of us actually need to pray for courage? As human beings, the desire for approval isn’t new, nor is the desire to belong. We want to belong to a family, a group, a team, an organization, a sisterhood, a brotherhood, a political party, or a movement. Even a gang is about belonging. As we continue to learn more about ourselves, about what we stand for, what our personal values are we may see people begin to fall off. Some may be quiet about it and some may make a whole ass announcement about it. LET. THEM. GO.

Let the people who are uncomfortable with this unedited version of you fall all the way off. They will convince you that you have changed instead of seeing that they haven’t grown at all. Strangers will drop a casual disparaging comment on you like it’s nothing instead of taking a moment to ask themselves what about you really has anything to do with them. You were never meant to blend. I heard someone say blending is not the same as belonging and I paused. How many times did I try to blend in to belong? Good Goddess, how many times did I box myself in, dim my light, edit my thoughts and feelings? No, they’re right, blending is not the same as belonging.

I dare you to not be everybody's cup of tea. I dare you to resist blending into a large group for a false sense of belonging. And I dare you to embrace all of your weird edges and funky quirks so that your true light shines. Because babe, lemme tell you, that’s when you attract the true souls who love you and your weird edges and funky ass quirks. There’s no telling how long that will take either, so continue to focus on being you in the meantime. If you find some good souls to vibe with along the way, cool, but Goddess, you belong to you first.