Can we stop using labels to describe ourselves and others? Why you ask? Because they are not only disconnecting us, inciting fear, roadblocking relationships and sabotaging communities but they are 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 become a community of healing, hope and health. 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 religion, a socioeconomic level, the way we look or even the way we feel.
These neat little labels interfere with the limited time, space, energy 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 (our spirit, heart, mind and body), we create a boundary that makes it hard to create the space for us to be known and accepted at the deep levels we need and want to be known and accepted.
Right here and right now, I want to ask you to take a deep breath and create the space to be with me for a minute. Open your spirit, heart mind and hands,and allow 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, gender, ethnicity, political party and your particular place that you are a human being who lives, breathes, eats, exercises, sleeps, poops, drinks, laughs, cries, moves, speaks, feels, thinks, hopes, dreams, creates, works, plays and loves.
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 be and live.
I 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, truth and all of life’s most amazing gifts. I wish we could allow love to tell us who we are- we are all gifts. I believe this truth has the divine power to 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.
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 us. You know what blocks your light? A big, sticky, man-made and consumer curated label. So, rip that sucker right off and bring yourself and your gifts to people who desperately need to be with you and receive your experience, strength and hope.
No more labels- we want to be known for the way we LOVE!
DeeAnn Dean 