On a recent stroll upon the beach, I happened upon what I surmised to be a family that included a naked little girl that appeared to be having the time of her life. There was something so simple and yet so stunning about the fact that nothing separated her from the sand upon which she played, or the tide that was lapping at her precious little toes. She was the absolute picture of glee, and as I greeted her, she readily grinned back at me, matching me in shameless, open, and innocent eye to heart contact. Her complete unawareness of her nudity gave me permission to simply behold her in all her physical beauty, and in so doing, the greater whole of who she is came shining forth. It truly was as striking a picture of freedom as I have ever seen. It tugged at the child in me that longs to be released from the bondage of all that covers my Innocence, my glee. Though I am hardly a nudist, there is a part of me that envies that level of unabashed exposure; that freedom of physicality reflecting the return to a spirit that needs hide nothing. Whether or not we as adults feel drawn to dropping our clothing in appropriate settings, the metaphor is one that certainly gives me pause.
The absolute lack of self-consciousness in that little girl demonstrated to me the openness and vulnerability that we are as pre-conditioned children. It seemed to me that her smile reflected a being that had yet to be told that who she is isn’t what she should be. She had yet to accumulate enough programming that would have her avert her eyes to someone who met her with a smile. She was so clearly in the experience of that day on the beach, and so not into a story of what should or shouldn’t be, and why she need cover her self from exposure to a bold and scary world. Though I could make a case for the karmic imprinting that had yet to be revealed in effectual circumstance, she was still open and available to the Innocence of her Sourced Self. She could still, though perhaps faintly, hear the angels singing of the sweetness of life. She glowed with the joy of simply being alive. She had no need to hide behind a self-image or an egoic pretence. She was there. She was truly there. And in her there-ness, she welcomed me right in.
I was taught early on that nudity was something that our family simply didn’t do. This teaching applied to physicality and to emotionality. I was taught to hide my feelings in the same way I was to hide my body. I am at a point in my personal emergence where I am blessing and releasing that tribal programming. I want to return to the innate sense of Innocence and defenselessness that my little beach angel was basking in. The pain of hiding and withholding is far too high a price for me to pay. While I may not be hitting the nude beaches of south Florida any time soon, I am committed to forgiving the ways in which I was imprinted to believe I have to cover and disguise the parts of me that were shamed and rejected. I am relentlessly going into the places within that I have avoided for years. I am devoted to feeling down through the layers of energetic veils that shroud my heart and hide my Light. I am being released, through simple intimate Presence, from the depths of self-aversion that has been my hell. I will to experience directly the Sourced beauty of who I am without the story, and then to allow that beauty to inform my earthly experience. I want to stand before the world naked and unashamed. I am risking it all in the name of Love. I am risking it all in the name of freedom. I am risking it all in the name of Innocence.
This is the very heart of forgiveness. This is at the very heart of my journey. Hiding no more in unconscious shame and aversion, I am free to love within the Love. And from that space of free, open Innocence, I give my gifts of Love. I no longer recoil in fear of rejection. I simply give. Here I am readers. Naked, unashamed, and finally free to love.
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