(Venus enters Cancer. The Sun meets Uranus. Full Moon vibrations echo.)

Let nobody tell you what to do
You've got to live your life and see it through
Keep on livin’ the way you are
Just to know that will make you a star
Be yourself
— Celeda

There’s a party going on. The whole of nature is dancing to the rhythms, in perfect harmony. Watch for it.

How the trees sway. The birds sing. The squirrels prance. The dogs run.

Every sentient being, mostly minus the human race, is being themself. None are trying to be anybody else.

There is no try in nature.

Absent that, joy is the unanimous experience — difficulty, to be sure, but no chronic conditions requiring unnatural interventions. When have you ever met a deeply frustrated dolphin, crying of thirst?

Worry, stress, chronic disease, panic, fragmentation — these belong to us. For better or worse, they are uniquely human, and stem from a uniquely human issue.

Trying to be somebody other than ourself. Trying to be what our parents want. What our teachers want. What our societies want. What popular culture says is right.

Consciousness moves away from the body and the present moment — and the joy therein — into thoughts, thinking, and striving. Effort and stress is the result, and the false split now created between so called success and so called failure.

Ask a tree what those terms mean. Really, go ahead, on your next walk ask. You will hear nothing but golden silence in response.

There is no success and failure in nature, never mind what Darwin said. These concepts do not exist. Nor is there judgment. Yes, turf issues, squabbles, fights to the death — but they are not malignant or malicious. Just life doing its thing, keeping a kind of order difficult for us to comprehend in a law-governed, creatively repressed world.

All arrows are pointing towards you becoming you, which is to say: letting go of all that is not you.

(How can you be anybody but yourself if you don’t try?)

All the striving, all the shoulds, all the dreams not authentic to your heart. Letting go. Removing. Detoxifying.

There is a gem inside of you, nay, a bright shining star. It is neither good nor bad, it is as it is.

Allowing its light to shine, for its own sake, without layers of thought-conditioning and future projections, is the way to happiness, to flow, to abundance, and abiding peace.

If we are stressed, anxious, racing around, it is time to pause and reflect. Who am I trying to be right now?

And come back to your breath. Back to your body. Back to the beating rhythm of your heart.

And remember: nobody is in control. Nobody knows what’s right for you, except you.

Dance.

Suggested Use: Have pen and paper ready. Read this post once. Then read again, a little more slowly. Pause. Reflect. Journal any connections or intentions that come to you. Come back a few days later, and read again. Repeat. Only take what resonates. Leave the rest behind, and kindly share if you feel another could be benefited.