Becoming your own witness; your human potential longs to unfold
Closing out our human potential theme on the Grounded Relating Monday Music Challenge, is by Jewel, a lovely songstress, with a deep knowing of the human condition. Any of her songs will generally promote introspection. Today’s selection is an upbeat celebration called “Becoming,” a song which doesn’t deny or white-wash the struggle and the dissonances one has to traverse in order to become.
Our Monday Music selection for today is Jewel’s “Becoming” from the album “Jewel 0304” as posted on YouTube by #Jewel:
“Listen heart…listen to the melancholy Melody of your own voice”
Beginning with a quiet, almost inaudible intro, the song creates a meditative moment of presence, even as you wait for the song to begin. Life itself can be like that, a lot of waiting as you yearn to become aware of what’s in play.
The first lyrics of the song impart an important message: After you wait, you must listen. Jewel makes it more personal with an imperative voice: “Listen, heart; Listen close—listen 2 the melancholy Melody of your own voice.” Another important message. When you listen, you may hear melancholy. You may hear happy. But whatever it is that you hear, when you are listening, the melody is your own voice.
“…what personality typologies…have to offer…: a commonly felt and experienced language…where we can meet each other neutrally with love and human compassion.”
It seems simple enough. But in a world of responsibilities, political correctness, group-think, poverty, chaos, anger, internet and smart phones…well, the proposition of hearing a single voice is one thing. The proposition of discerning your own voice amongst the milieu of a thousand distractions is an entirely different proposition. And the strategy is to listen. Listen close…without judgement.
Tired of being on automatic? Ready for full-on becoming?
And what is so amazing is that Jewel clearly claims what many of us will feel, but then are quick to disown. In the song “Becoming,” Jewel claims she is tired. Well, in polite society, you certainly can’t admit that. You might as well as admit weakness or defeat. Here’s what Jewel says: “I am weary of my own dreaming. I am tired of waiting.”
For those of us who are doing, and have done our work, or who continue to do the work, we have an idea about what Jewel is speaking. You work on your blind spots; you work on bettering yourself. And yet, there are moments, when you still go on automatic pilot. You just forget, or become stressed, and revert to what is familiar, but perhaps not the most healthy or evolved. You work on not criticizing, but discerning paths forward. Or recognizing skill sets that can be embellished. It’s not a problem per se, but eventually, you get tired. When will it ever end? The answer may be a frightful never, but don’t focus there. Jewel has a better idea. She says:
“So this time, I’m leaping.
I reach-beyond myself 2 see
What I find, beyond my mind, there is no time
In this place beyond my sight
My heart knows what is not yet seen.I’m witnessing my own becoming.”
Reaching outside yourself, to that place not yet seen
Sometimes you can’t think your way through to the other side. Sometimes you have to reach outside yourself, outside your comfort zone, outside what you know. Sometimes you have to rely on another faculty, beyond mind. Jewel suggests that “In this place beyond my sight, my heart knows what is not yet seen. “ Hours of meditation could be spent on the meaning of that sentence, especially for those of us with a strong preference for thinking over feeling.
And the path to “Becoming” according to Jewel isn’t paved in gold nor is it strewn with thorn-less roses. No. She says:
“I am hurting
Oh, I am not yet born
I am the mother and the father
Of what is not yet known
Darkness surrounds me
I scratch, I struggle, I breathe…”
Breathe in order to find Becoming
What is the ultimate solution that Jewel finds in her song of “Becoming?” She says, “I breathe….” That’s what mindfulness and meditation are all about. Personality typologies too. All of that—personality types, meditation, mindfulness—provides a map, or a language to understand, contemplate, and converse about that place beyond sight, where the heart “knows what is not yet seen.” Language is form. Without form, there is only void, which means no conversation.
This is what personality typologies, meditation and mindfulness have to offer to us scratching, struggling humans: a commonly felt and experienced language or existence where we can meet each other neutrally with love and human compassion.
What was the final answer Jewel offered, in all its splendor, on the radio in a pop song, free for the having? Breathe. The trick is to breathe and to not deny your experience, or get tied up or trapped in your experience. The Universe is always on time and on schedule; we either wake up to it or we don’t.
What was the final answer Jewel offered, in all its splendor, on the radio in a pop song, free for the having? Breathe.
So today, wake up. Be a becoming. Breathe. Know you will scratch and struggle, and quite possibly experience weariness. Breathe anway.The antidote is breath and a leap of faith to that place not seen, but a place your heart knows, even a place not yet seen.
Enjoy the music, and use the Grounded Relating Monday Music Challenge to stay present to yourself today.
Full lyrics for “Becoming” as posted on atozlyrics.com [LINK: http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/jewel/becoming.html} written by Lester Mendez and Jewel Kilcher:
Listen, heart
Listen close-listen
2 the melancholy
Melody of your own voice
I am weary of my own dreaming
I am tired of waiting
So this time, I’m leaping
[CHORUS] I reach-beyond myself 2 see
What I find, beyond my mind, there is no time
In this place beyond my sight
My heart knows what is not yet seen
I’m witnessing my own becoming
Lash myself 2 the
Mantle of my desire-I will
Turn from its temptations
But the wanting takes me higher
I am hurting
Oh, I am not yet born
I am the mother and the father
Of what is not yet known
Darkness surrounds me
I scratch, I struggle, I breathe
[CHORUS] I reach-beyond myself 2 see
What I find, beyond my mind, there is no time
In this place beyond my sight
My heart knows what is not yet seen
I’m witnessing my own becoming
