god

My favorite ‘poem’

Deep ✨

Only the passion that touches its abyss can light the tinder of your utmost truth.
Only to him who loses his whole self will self be given.
For only by catching fire will you learn to know the world deep inside you.
Only where mystery works does life begin.

A while ago, I heard this poem in the movie A Promise. The rest of the movie, I haven’t remembered and didn’t bother me at all. But this poem somehow stuck with me, and I have felt the need to share it multiple times since.

In the movie, it is read to an audience by a pastor (or something) in a church. I assume it’s supposed to be Christian, or at least religious. And yes, I do read God somewhere in there. But more so, it is an exceptional metaphor of life to me.

These lines somehow contain the real depth of life to me. They explain how I experience the mere fact of living, but also the secret to why this living is worthwhile and meaningful. There’s an essential paradox in every single one of these lines, that each explain an essential lesson. The messages are very similar but have subtle nuances, which makes it hard for me to pick a favorite. I’ll try to explain line by line:

My interpretation

Only the passion that touches its abyss can light the tinder of your utmost truth.
My translation: Only when you see the end and darkness of every joy, you can see real truths.

Only to him who loses his whole self will self be given.
My translation: Only when you completely give up your ego and surrender to a higher purpose, will you know who you really are.

For only by catching fire will you learn to know the world deep inside you.
My translation: Only when you’ve been through hardship and have surrendered to pain and chaos, will you know what you truly have to offer (to yourself and the world).

Only where mystery works does life begin.
My translation: Only when you accept that there are many things you will never know, and you surrender these things to a higher power, can you really live the way you’re supposed to.

I don’t know if I interpret these lines the way they were intended, and I don’t know if that really matters. I recently received a poetry collection by Rumi, and I was told that many of his poems are actually mistranslated. When I told my friend about this, she rightly said: ‘Who cares? I think Rumi would be very happy with any mistranslation that helps you or makes you feel good.’ And I think that makes sense.

Links with other authors

The lines from A Promise remind me of Meister Eckhart’s interpretation of Gelassenheit. He says that only when you’ve completely emptied yourself of any hope, identity, longing, expectation and ideas, you can receive and love God.

This idea reminds me of meditation in general, but especially the words of dr. Joe Dispenza, who says that you have to become ‘no one, no thing, no where and in no time’ in order to ‘unfold as pure consciousness into the unified field’. And I know this sounds kinda woo woo, but maybe this experience could be what Meister Eckhart meant by receiving God. And what I mean by all the processes described above.

Just something to think about. Thanks for reading!

xx Coco

How I know you’re worthy

Deep ✨

I hope I don’t have to tell you this, but if I do, I’m glad to: You’re so valuable. You’re more than good enough. You deserve everything you want. If you feel like you have no or low worth, or you don’t deserve to be loved – you’re wrong. And I know what you’re thinking: I don’t even know you. So let me tell you how I can see your worth without knowing you. Or more importantly: how you can see this too.

You are human

Let’s start with something really obvious: you are human. By definition, this means you are a feeling, experiencing, ever growing, loving & dreaming, complex and therefore amazing creature. Human beings are so special – just think about it – there’s so many things each of us can do. We can feel pain, we can experience pleasure.

We have certain interest for our wellbeing. We are creative in the way we think and live our lives, we can create other people and we can love and feel empathy for others. We can even love and care for animals, nature and things we don’t even fully understand. This makes that all of us, including you, have inherent value.

You are unique

There’s another obvious reason you have worth: because there is only one of you. You are unique in every way, only one person in this whole world is who you are. And there’s a reason for that uniqueness. Only one person can bring to the table exactly what you can. You have unique traits that can help or add to the lives of others, even when you don’t always see it yourself.

Only you are good at something particular, in your own kind of way. This doesn’t always mean that everything you do is irreplaceable; but it does mean that it cannot be done the same way you do it. This inevitably means that you have a place in this world no one else could take. This is so valuable.

You have a purpose

Building on the previous paragraph, these unique traits and the fact that there’s only one of you who can do what you can, suggests there is a purpose for your existence. You’re filling a gap that apparently needed to be filled. Even if you don’t feel that way yet, or even if you haven’t found your purpose – it serves you to accept it as truth that you have one. There is a reason you’re here.

If you need help finding your purpose, try reading this blog and filling out the worksheet.

You exist

This sounds really simple. But let’s think about this & quote Nietzsche here:

“Our own existence now must encourage us most strongly to live according to our own laws and standards: it is an inexplicable fact that we live precisely today, and had an infinite time to develop–nevertheless, we possess only a short-lived today to show why and to what end we evolved. We have only ourselves to answer for our existence; consequently we want to be the real helmsman of this existence and not permit our existence to be a thoughtless accident.”

If we may believe the brilliant Nietzsche, this means that because we happen to live now and only now (even though we had the whole existence of mankind to be born), we have to prove to ourselves why we were born right here, right now. This assumes there is a reason for your existence.

You are not born out of accident or by mere chance, but the fact that you are here, now, means that you should be here, now. And let’s make that count. Your worth, therefore, also lies in the fact that you’re in existence. There’s a reason and value to your presence.

Bonus: you are loved

I love counting spirituality as a bonus. But for many people, this reason should be the first one to mention (sorry!). If you believe in a higher power, whether this is a religious God or some type of spiritual ‘source’, there is another authority, outside (or should I say inside? 😉 ) of you and life itself that acknowledges your worth.

Because in the spiritual sense, not only are you human, unique, purposeful and existing, but it is also divine will that you are all these things. There’s divine planning, purpose, reason and love behind your existence. You are here to be loved. You are here to be accepted, acknowledged and worthy. Divinity made you exactly as you should be, and your worthiness by that alone (some people would say) is blatantly obvious.

Of course, you are also loved by other people, and probably some animals. But I would like to not count these types of love as adding to your worth, since this makes your worth contingent on external factors. Because even if (you feel like) you are not loved by anyone, you are still worthy, and deserve just as much abundance as everyone else.

The thing is, and I hope you can realise this after reading this blog: your worthiness is an inherent part of you. Whether you (or others) can see it or not. It always has been, and always will be.

xx Coco