Within Yourself

 Anytime I’m in my bedroom with the door closed, my cat scratches to come in and be present with me. He doesn’t understand the concept of privacy, or nakedness, or personal space. Something I just can't stop thinking about is the fact that we can never truly leave ourselves alone. And if we cannot leave ourselves alone, can God leave us alone? 

What if a house didn’t have doors? Are boundaries needed in a home where we are known? Where we always feel felt, in a place where in order to know each other more we must deeply know ourselves. 

How do we learn more about ourselves? In a world that is individualistic everyone claims to know themselves pretty well, but I think the opposite is true. We know what we don’t like. We know a majority of all the negative things we will avoid. We know how to numb, and not come into contact with ourselves because sometimes it just hurts too much. What about the parts of ourselves that are positive? What are things we do to bring us peace? The more that we grow to learn positively and negatively about ourselves will only help us to love others better. Knowing  yourself means loving yourself; this personal empathy makes it possible to love others in your life better. Give yourself the hospitality you may have never received in the way you needed. Give yourself grace. Love yourself more than your greatest lover. 

Something I have come to learn is this: All the answers about anything you ever wanted to know deeply, can truly be found within yourself. If we are made in God’s image, that means the more we know that Voice. Knowing our true selves makes the ego die, and the Voice come alive. When we are confident in ourselves we are confident in God, and when we feel felt by others, it is because of God who lives in the trees rooted into the ground and is the lifeblood that runs through our veins. Everything belongs, the good, the bad, and everything that fits in between. 

In the famous words of St. Patrick-

“Christ with me,

Christ before me,

Christ behind me,

Christ in me,

Christ beneath me.

This is something I have always held on to. Confidence in Christ universally, in myself, but also in all.