BRANDED

Why do we mark ourselves?  Tattoos, Piercings, Clothing.  We put marks upon our bodies or wear specific logos to identify us with a group.  The significance is really within the eye of the wearer and maybe others who share the same marks or beliefs.  But why do we need these?  What makes them so powerful at times?

I have two tattoos.  I had the first one placed on my body during a deep struggle in 2001.  It's meaning will forever be part of my journey, but I don't sit and reflect upon the actual mark daily.  The second I found part of my letting go and moving through 2011 - one of the roughest years of my life.

They both resonate a truth I can never truly deny.  And though there are many days, weeks, months that I have tried to walk away from them, they still remain.  I mean come on, when you put something on your body like that, it ISN'T just going away!

Balance.  

Direction.

For here on the blog, that's what I'll call them.  It's what each symbolizes.

In 2001 I needed to know that I wasn't alone.  And I needed to find the things that allowed me to live within the yearnings of my heart and the larger picture of life that I wanted to accept.

There is within a desire to find balance in my physical, my emotional/mental, and my spiritual self.  When those three align I can sense a cleansing of the fog that my spirit sometimes lingers in.  That God is real and that I know him.  That there is a mental and emotional charge that flows through me and others that I cherish and care for.  That my physical body needs to MOVE and to strengthen the muscles and fibers that help me to continue in the world each day.

Then there is direction.

This one is actually the specifics that allow me to find balance.

"Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, minding your own business, working with your hands - so that you may earn the respect of others and not be dependent upon anyone."

1 Thessalonians 4:11, 12

When I go on all of these crazy trips to the woods, I'm seeking the quiet that often eludes me here.  I am working on more quiet in the everyday.  But when I go away, like Christ often did, I find that the quiet often shatters the NOISE that fills my head.  Then I realize that I need to recognize that the moments are to be cherished as well.  

Eradicate Gossip.  I hate it.  I know that I am guilty of it, but it just isn't my business unless I am directly affected by it.  And even then I need to be quiet first.  Listen.  And know that I don't have to speak.  I don't have to join in on the 'news' that so many of us just crave.

And though my job isn't some farmer or laborers, I need to remember that the work I do is something that others will look at and see the character in me.  That my place in this world may not be lofty or esteemed by all, but it is the honest gathering of my talents and work ethic and that all three of the above will show to others.

The second tattoo is the marking of that verse 1T411 (see picture above).

I don't encourage tattoos, logos or even crosses, unless you are willing to live through those statements on a daily basis. 

I try to.  Don't always succeed.

But I continue to daily try.