I am not

Sometimes it’s helpful to name what we are not in order to better understand who and what we are. One of my favorite artists right now is India Arie. Over the years, India has been great at expressing who she is not, and in doing so, elucidating who she truly is.

In her 2006 single, “I Am Not My Hair”, she powerfully declares just that:

I am not my hair
I am not this skin
I am not your expectations, no


I am not my hair
I am not this skin
I am the soul that lives within

From our earliest years on this earth, we are conditioned to define ourselves by what we can do, what we look like, what others think of us. Over time, we are lulled into identifying ourselves with these externals. Yet, we are so much more than these externals.

March 2021


      
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