Goddesses, Sloths, and Identity

Happy last Friday of October, dears!  It's Scorpio season, and everywhere there seems to be talk of ghosts, spirits, and magic.  I know not everyone believes in all that, but personally I've always felt very drawn to it. Maybe it's because I was born around this time of year that the idea of "magic" is so familiar and comforting to me. 

Quan Yin, one of my hero goddesses

Spirituality can be very powerful when sought out for positive reasons, and having a sort of spirituality can help us to make meaning of things that are challenging and painful.  Everyone's approach to how they process the world is different, but for me, thinking about goddesses and spirits (and even prayers) has been very uplifting and consoling because it gives life a significance beyond just the physical things.  It's scary sometimes to realize how fleeting the physical world can be.  Even those parts of life we find most inherent--like our "identities," for instance--aren't guaranteed to last forever. The other night while studying, I listened to one of Maddy Moon's podcasts that was a recording of her interview on Simple Roots Radio, and she talked about the huge role her spirituality played in helping her overcome her eating disorder. After several years of abusing her body and mind, she reached a breaking point and decided to heal herself, but to do so she had to "give up" her "identity" as a fitness model.  We use the term "identity crisis" a lot in casual conversation, but it's actually a really scary phenomenon because in our society there's so much emphasis on the labels that we associate ourselves with that when we lose them we feel lost and purposeless.  But spirituality--regardless of the form it takes--can help ground us if we understand that the only meaning we really need in life is "love."
Okay, with that said, here's a video of baby sloths.  Because what says love like a baby sloth?

<3 Frances

 

<3 Frances