SIZE
If Lady Liberty had been built with the same exact shape, but stood only 5 inches tall, would she have the impact that she does, bringing hope to so many millions of people? Nope.
What if she was 5 feet tall? Nope. 10 feet? Still NOPE!
Size matters. Height matters. The Statue of Liberty was passionately created to have a powerful impact on anyone who passed by her grand figure, from anywhere in the vicinity.
What does this have to do with you, or me?
When I ask myself why I write these posts, why I care to make a positive difference to a wider audience, why it matters, why I feel these urgings – I try to get as honest with myself as I can. Is it fame? Fortune? Or some other ego-centric need that I’m trying to fill? Nope, nope and nope. Then what is it?
It’s a deep yearning to have a more powerful and wider impact that drives me. The possibility of bringing more light and more hope and a sense of quickening in the hearts of people who also yearn for something more. This yearning is intangible, yet it’s ever present. It’s made of love, of radiance. I believe it is part of our nature. We are not just human, but we are also divine.
We are grand. The light in our hearts is infinitely larger than the Statue of Liberty. In this way, she lives in me. And in you, too, should you choose to believe.
FOUNDATION
Lady Liberty stands on Liberty Island, atop a very tall, brick platform. The platform is so tall that when you look up at the statue from the ground, you can barely see the bottom of her mammoth-sized foot.
I recently invested the last 2 years studying and mastering very specific healing modalities to completely overcome Emotional Trauma (or Complex Post Traumatic Stress). And Lady Liberty offers some powerful metaphors for all of us who are recovering from, escaping, and healing from such darkness and fog.
Join me in exercising and stretching of one our greatest gifts – the creative imagination. It’s the only thing humans have that animals don’t have – the ability to imagine things differently than what they are.
Many of us who are healing from Post Traumatic Stress have, in some ways, become refugees in our own psyches, strangers in our own minds. Dealing with oppression of emotional flashbacks can be absolutely frightening and debilitating.
How do we reclaim our power, harness our sense of control to make our dreams come true? How do we do this without harming others in the process? How do we inspire the depth of love in our hearts to blaze strong?
Let’s imagine Lady Liberty’s brick platform as a recycling center for Emotional Trauma. I can imagine immigrants and refugees waving to her, having traveled from distant lands as my family did. I can imagine them arriving with so many dreams and hopes and possibilities.
And also, in each one of these amazing individuals, I have witnessed so much unprocessed trauma. Many arrive with unresolved grief and some suffer with memories that you wouldn’t wish upon your worst enemies.
What if the way through was the way out? What if Lady Liberty’s foundation represented a new common knowledge about how to use TRAUMA as a gateway to liberation from suffering?
What if – as each person recycled their trauma – their torch blazed brighter?
Just the thought of that makes my heart feel excited and hopeful. I recently wrote a blog post on riding the tides of trauma rather than being sucked into the emotional undercurrents. We have much more power than we think we do. Just like Lady Liberty! Let’s use it! Let’s use it with brilliance, with power and with heart!
FAITH
I hate the popular poem that Lady Liberty has become known for. It was NOT written by her creator, her architect. You know the poem… it starts with “give us your tired, your poor, your hungry… ” blah blah blah. I absolutely abhor its appeal to our lowest-common-denominator human experiences. Give me a freakin’ break.
Instead, I propose a much more DIVINE, HOPEFUL and EMPOWERING invitation to all who are seeking a safer home, a better place, a brighter way!
Bring your most brilliant, talented self!
Bring your greatest hopes and dreams!
Bring your most enlivened sense of creative imagination!
Bring your most generous heart and delicious foods and your amazing culture!
Because what I know for sure, as an absolute truth, is that immigrants to the USA are usually VERY BIG DREAMERS. So is anyone who is reading this blog!!!
Let’s stay true to our dreams and hopes for a bright future!
Let’s keep the light in each others’ eyes lively by acknowledging the radiance that simply exists in each of us!
Let’s stay awake to the deepest truths about our DIVINITY as well as our humanity!
Let’s not settle for less than the best that we can each bring to the table!
Does this require FAITH? You darn well tootin’ better believe it does. But I’ll take that ANY DAY over having our amygdalas hijacked with FEAR.
I believe in you. And me.
Big time.
Here is my invitation to you.
Stand tall, on a strong foundation, with deep faith.
Just like Lady Liberty.
Much love,
Reverend SASSY SHORTS!
aka Debbie Happy Cohen
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This post is as solid as the Statue of Liberty’s foundation, Debbie! Rock On! (Literally AND figuratively!) 😉
Thank you! It was so much fun to write 😊🙏🗽🗽🗽