Can we stop using labels to describe ourselves and others? Because it is not only disconnecting us, inciting fear, roadblocking relationships and sabotaging communities but it is stunting our own personal growth and development. I am so tired of labels. They are beyond ridiculous and they do not in anyway communicate who we really are, how we are designed to connect as human beings and why we desperately need each other, not a label, to be a healthy community full of healing, hope and help.
Any label that we choose to use to tell people who we are or others use to tell us who we are, reduces our whole person to a belief, an opinion, a way of eating, a relationship, a description, an age, gender, a political stance, a workout, a socioeconomic level, the way we look or even the way we feel. These strange little labels interfere with the limited time, space and opportunities that we have been given to know someone different and maybe even discover something different about ourselves.
The truth is that we are not only designed to be known and accepted but we are desperate for it. When we use a label to summarize our whole person, that is our spirit, heart, mind and body, we create a boundary that makes it hard to create the space for us to be known at the deep levels we need and want to be known.
Take a deep breath and create the space to be with me for a minute. Open your heart and mind by allowing your past, prejudices, preferences, posts, opinions, judgments and fears to fall away. Perhaps in this present moment, I can help you see that beneath age, color, race and gender, we are all human beings who live, breathe, eat, exercise, sleep, poop, drink, laugh, cry, move, speak, feel, think, hope, dream, create, work, play and love. Not only do we all “do” a lot of the same things as human beings, but we are designed as human beings to “be” the same at the deepest level. We are designed to be vulnerable, sensitive, fragile, weak, needy, insecure, transparent, desperate and dependent on Love and Truth to tell us who we are and how we are designed to live.
I just wish every human being could see how beautiful and good this human being design is and how we need it to taste, see, smell, hear and feel love. I wish we could allow love, not labels, tell us who we are- we are all gifts. I believe this truth can transform us and set us free to love, care, nourish, respect, honor, enjoy and share our whole person, and then create the same space for others.
Please listen to me, you are born to be a gift to yourself, your family, your friends, your community and your world. We need you and our world needs you to let your light shine by sharing your time, talents and truth to love and encourage others. Do you know what blocks your big, beautiful and amazing light from shining ? A big sticky label. So, rip that sucker right off and bring your whole self to people who desperately need to be with you and receive your experience, strength and hope.
DeeAnn Dean 