by Annie Zalezsak     © 29 January 2008

In my life, my true self has ebbed and flowed between two shores: the mystical horizon beyond any eye’s vision (a shore that is visible only to the imagination); and the sometimes smooth-and-sandy, sometimes harsh-and-rocky shore that is the ever-altering physical face of human form.

Never certain of where I actually reside, I have played on the waves, rushing in and out on tides. For a phase I am immersed in the deep spiritual sea. Then thrust back on land, in denial of anything sniffing of ethereal at all.

Reality. Humph. The authentic self can dance amid both places. Yet I’m doubtful about where integrity belongs. If I play on land, am I in ego? If I swim, am I negligent of my human opportunity?

One thing I am learning, is that masks, while giving the illusion of safety, are deeply unsatisfying. That dancing on the surface, no matter how playfully, is brief and ultimately insignificant. The momentary joy quickly lapses into sad loss. It is unsustainable, no matter how much we effort to uphold it. False joy has dated value.

There is an eternal wellspring of unbounded rapture in our collective soul. This is where all our truths, cohabitate as one. This primal essence is suppressed, oppressed and restrained underneath a myriad of transient forms, barely negligible. To acknowledge it, seems outrageous to the average modern human. Yet all of us, if we dare to admit, know of this inner deepest truth. All we see, hear and believe in, are wind-up images reflecting stories our soul made up.

But it’s fun to partake in, isn’t it? Like a mischievous child, playing hide-and-seek, hide-and-seek.

Truth always wins.

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