OF MICE + MEN
The other day I saw a meme. There was an image of a large toad sitting beside a soft white mouse. The toad’s tongue extended as if to eat the small white mouse. A caption above the mouse read, Love + Light Only. A caption above the toad read, Shadow Work. While I rarely pay attention to the superficial noise that most memes are, this image has stuck with me ever since.
Comments on the meme were exclusively in favor of its message: celebrating the ‘true work’ of ‘healing trauma,’ while deriding the ‘misguided efforts’ represented by the mouse. I was stricken by how fully incorrect this message was. Immediately, an alternative perspective leapt to mind:
There again was our self-righteous toad. But this time, he was set against the monolithic image of a man. (Toad was probably the size of his big toe.) Zooming out, the figure was revealed to be a titan - a true warrior - a prince.
The toad retreats entirely from view.
CONTINUED…
The point of this is not to trade one arrogant depiction for another. The point is to remind us that ‘the toad’ is not the truth of who we are. We’ve only ever thought we were the toad; the truth is we are replicas of God.
Through unconscious misdirection, we’ve become addicted to the promise of ‘hard work’: the unchallenged assumption that our effort can produce eventual reward if only we will choose to persevere.
But our addictions to this story have us trapped. The truth is that, despite our best intentions, we’ve been hard at work attempting to digest a lie. I cannot overstate this revelation.
I have carefully withheld explicit (public) comment on this subject; but no longer. It is time to lay this out in simple terms.
CONTINUED…
Your ideas about shadow work have kept you in the shadows, feeling small. You’re identified with shadow work, so there is always shadow work to do.
If seeing yourself as the toad helps you to feel superior to mice, then you become the image of a toad.
But this is not the truth of who you are.
CONTINUED…
The Truth is: you are Perfect + Unbroken. The Truth is: this has always been the case.
The Truth is: you could never earn a Grace that’s freely given.
You are made of that which you most-wish to be.