Where do Labels end and I begin?

I have a very close friend is going through a battle of life or death with himself. Doctors continue to label him. Society continues to label him. But the most difficult part is that he labels himself. Brands himself with a label that is not who he truly is.

His heartbreak, his struggle, is one of the most difficult things I have ever had to witness in my life. And I have had to walk away because it is too difficult to feel his pain. I can no longer watch him turn into something he is not. And I am helpless to help him change because he is the only one who can decide how to rip the labels off and find the truth.

What is the truth? Well it's not always what everyone tells you it is. I have learned that about my own journey. I face it everyday and in every moment. Is this real? Is this true? Is this truly what I need? When we discover the truth sometimes it sucks. And sometimes we have to deliver bad news or realize that we can't do or be what the outside label says.

There are moments in life where you feel like you've got your clothes on inside out and everyone's judging you by the brand on the tag, only it's not necessarily the clothes you're wearing.  You're wearing you. And you don't know how to be you without someone telling you who you are. But the real you is you. There's no label you just are.

So where do I begin and labels end? Where do you begin and the label ends? Where does life begin and fairy tale or nightmare end?

I wrote this during work because I was so inspired by my friend's label of himself that I had to wonder a little bit about the necessity of labels and if there is the possibility of removing them.

When we tell someone what's wrong with them or label a problem or label ourselves--how is that effective help? Labels don't help. They box people in. 


What do you truly believe? That is your truth. That is who you are. You must feel it, it must cause your bones to shake and your heart to spin. There is no answer that we can give ourselves or to others that is going to be RIGHT. There is no RIGHT answer. There is only exploration. And that may not even be accurate. 


BE.


BE IN THE MOMENT.


BE WHO YOU ARE RIGHT NOW.


Don't try and change that.


Healing comes through awareness in the moment. 
It is our awareness in the instant time and space that allow us to recognize what we see.
We cannot count moments, but we can feel them with our gifted sense.
And from there we can feel life with our entire being.
That is the true gift of being human--feeling.


WHEN DO WE HAVE ENOUGH LABELS?
COULD WE LIVE WITHOUT LABELS?


I work in an industry that makes its living creating labels. Competition.
"I'm better than you are."
Can we just respect each other and recognize that if we all fit ourselves together that then we would have a very beautiful world and a balanced world because we would understand how we all need each other and operate as a collective unit by living in our being and feeling the moments that we are blessed with. 


Then maybe we wouldn't have such a difficult time believing in who we are. But we are currently a world of labels and that unfortunately causes my heart to hurt. So maybe if we begin to remove the labels and begin to accept who and what things are. Then maybe we'll create a little more peace.