One of my favourite pieces of art is by artist Alberto Sanchez. A woman is standing in a stream of water up to her mid thighs. Her head is tilted back, her eyes are closed, her chest is open and she has her arms extended at each side with her finger tips grazing the water just behind her. In a cotton ethereal dress falling off her shoulders, her red hair falling past them, you see a beautiful tattoo across her chest, which looks like angel wings and roses in a large intricate design.

The artwork is called Rapture

Rapture

Noun – a feeling of intense pleasure or joy.

What I see when I look at this woman is freedom, rebelliousness, wonder, a woman completely in the moment like nothing else matters. She is a wild woman, a wise woman, a woman unto herself, untamed and with her power unleashed. She has ancient wisdom inside of her that the world needs. And she has a seriously badass tattoo.

I wonder as I look at her, what it would be like to fully live like I imagine her to be. To live a life in rapture. Free. In intense pleasure. Joyful. Sovereign.

I look around at the women in my life. The mothers, workers, healers, nurturers, entrepreneurs, lawyers, nurses, artists, teachers, leaders, travellers, coaches, speakers, strategists, doctors, bankers, yogis. All trying to live on purpose, make a difference, show up in a way that matters, and take care of those close to them.

And I often wonder as I look at all of our lives, where is the rapture? Where is the unleashed power? Where do we find joy and intense pleasure? Where do we give of our wisdom without worrying how it will be received, just because we know we need to share it?

Here is the truth of it: The rapture is wherever you choose to experience it. The freedom is wherever you create it. The sharing of wisdom happens whenever you are brave and bold enough to stand up, speak out and use your voice. And pleasure and joy can be experiences that we have to make space, time and moments for, but it is within our power to do so, if we care enough to make it matter.

We worry too much. We worry about how we look and how we sound; of how we’ll be perceived and what people will think; of how many likes we do or don’t get and what we think it says about us; that we aren’t doing enough, being enough, achieving enough, striving enough; that nobody sees us or really cares about our gifts; we worry that we’re worn out by it all, and we long for a time when we could just be instead of always trying become.

Because becoming is exhausting. It puts us firmly in our masculine energy and leaves our feminine dying on the vine. It makes that softer part of us who just wants to be received and seen and acknowledged and loved, yearn for a different life. It leaves our feminine crying out for peace and space and to run away from it all–to a place where she can simply be.

Let’s make a pact to stop becoming and just start being. Being who we truly are. Real, gritty, honest, unpolished, unfiltered, uncensored, unconcerned with anything other than coming back home to who we truly are. In this moment, this day, this time and this place.

Let’s just be. Let go of the striving to be anything other than who we are. Drop the chains that bind us. Take off the mask that hides us. Let the light shine on all that is good and true and whole. Let’s choose to be wildly enraptured with ourselves and in our own lives.