Shadow Work FAQ
So you’ve heard about shadow work and now you’ve got questions. No worries. This Shadow Work FAQ is an excellent place to find answers. If you have a question that is not here, let me know. I may include it in an update! What is Shadow Work? The term was created by...
Spirituality and Giving Too Much
There are a lot of religious teachings that support martyrdom. Giving up your life, sacrificing comfort, living in poverty in service to others are all seen as ways to sainthood – literally and figuratively. Many spiritual traditions teach that spirituality is free...
The Spirituality of Surfing
If anyone had ever told me that surfing was a spiritual pursuit, I would have said they were completely nuts. The spirituality of surfing? Bah! Funny, but it really is. I finally get why all those lonely guys in wet suits would be out riding the waves long after the...
There and Back Again. Now What?
Every sacred journey ends with a return home. But once you have become the hero of your own story, how do you go back home? How do you have this amazing experience, this transformation that no one understands, and slide back into your old routine? We often get to that...
Your experience when you were little is very reminiscent of mine too.
It is terrible, the “what are you?” questions. It makes my soul cry and cringe a bit to hear it again. For me, it was multi-layered. It was not just about questioning only my general ethnicity, but the specifics of the “Asians.” Like “what kind of Asian, and what region, based on skin-tone, because only “lighter skinned Vietnamese” could possibly come from the north and not the south. That kind of ignorance and insensitivity, that I had to tolerate. But the “what are you” was also in question of my gender. When I was little, I was very androgynous, ambiguous and a shape-shifter. Simply tossing my hair left or right or under a hat made a difference. And I also love wearing what style clothes I like, whether boys’ or girl. It doesn’t matter. Look at nowaday with all this “unisex” and “everybody collection” stuff. Who cares! Clothes does not define gender or sex! I enjoy the versatility and full spectrum expression and cared very little about having to “appropriate present” myself as a specific gender to the general public.
The questions are not even asked as a genuine way to get to know or learn more about someone that comes as a poorly asked question. It was simply an insulting way to satisfy their curiosity and assert superiority and power. “What are you”, an animal, extraterrestrial, a thing.
It is truly sickening in the stomach to think about.
I imagine, if I had answered “earthling,” I would be laughed at, mocked at, and thrown rocks at.
😔 More kindness is witnessed amongst the wild animal kingdom than the human one.
So sorry that you experienced that. Thanks for sharing. I hope that people will read this and begin to think about what they are saying. Seeing all creatures from a heart space, a space of inclusion, may change our language.