1-27. Do not be like anyone else. It is the Will of God that you be uniquely who you are. Be this truth and you will be forever free.
The desire to be like others is nearly universal. It might be considered to be part of the human tradition, some aspect of our psyches that was so fundamental to the survival of early human tribes that it has become intrinsic to our behavior patterns. Certainly conforming to expected patterns of behavior has benefits for society as a whole, allowing for cohesive structures to be built upon expected social norms and mores. While on a large scale level, conformity has benefits for maintenance of social order, for individuals seeking to fit in with their peers, an over application of behavioral modification to please the standards that are perceived to apply in any particular situation can be detrimental to the individual growth and development of a person. We are in many ways similar. Generally, we live and work and desire the best for ourselves and for others. But when taken to an extreme, the desire to conform can become stifling and oppressive, subverting an individual’s unique expression of themselves under a heavy blanket of restriction and suppression. This will not do. You may be like others. But no other person exactly like you has ever lived. Nor will another person be born into this world that will ever be just as you are. To say that you are unique appears to be almost cliché in its pervasiveness as it is a dicta that is frequently both alluded to and directly presented to children as they grow. But to what extent do most people truly believe and accept that they are, categorically and absolutely without exception, utterly unique? Fully drawing this idea down into the very depths of your heart would proscribe a total renunciation of all desire to conform. Not that you would necessarily leap from your current life to assume a completely new and different one. Such a sea change would hardly be appropriately derived from the simple acceptance that you are a wholly and eternally unique Soul, one who is the only Soul that is fully capable of understanding yourself in ways that no other person could ever fathom. Literally, no one has ever walked in your shoes. They may be able to draw parallels to their own lives and experiences when you relate to them the challenges and situations you’ve encountered in your life. But can they truly be said to be in a place where they can effectively or even accurately judge or understand the totality of you? They cannot do this for you as they have not lived your life. Equally you cannot truly know the depth of any other person’s growth and their path in life as you have not lived it for them. Because we all walk our own Paths back to God, we have our own, personal stories that only we, as seemingly individual Souls, can truly understand and appreciate in their vastness and rich depth of experience. To conform to social standards that benefit society as a whole has benefit for such choices do assist everyone in ensuring the general order and effective functioning of all day to day activities. But to conform to standards that serve solely to restrict individual expression and that produce a herd-like mentality amongst the participants does not serve in any way to assist an individual Soul on their journey back to Truth. When you were Created, even though the use of the word “when” is inappropriate as your Creation occurred before time began, you were Unique. No other Soul is exactly as you are. Each and every Child of God is truly Unique and utterly incapable of being exactly the same as another. All are Pieces of God. Each Piece is needed to complete the totality of wholeness that is the Heart of God. Many sleep. Many dream of conformity and though its demands, isolation from their personal purpose. But none are identical to any other. Each Soul has talents and desires that are unique and that can serve to guide that Soul to the activities, thought patterns and other Souls best suited to assist them on their Path back to fully accepting their amazing Glory. When you are fully ready to accept that you are absolutely essential, that you are an indispensable part of a much larger World of Life, you will begin to let go of any desire to be praised or even to be blamed by others. Both adoration and condemnation will not hold any value for you any longer, for you will arrive at a place in your mind from which you will be ready to accept that the judgments of others cannot possibly be based on anything other than their desire to contrast your experiences and choices with their own. While they are welcome to make such comparisons and to perhaps gain some level of insight into their own personal journeys, in no way are they at all suited or equipped to know with certainty the “why” of you. Your why, your personal story, the reasons you chose as you did and acted as you felt best, are for you to know alone. To release your desire for approval is to become the guide of your own life, recognizing the many lessons that others may offer but forever understanding that is it absolutely and eternally your responsibility to decide for yourself what you wish to take from what they offer. Freedom and the vast Peace that comes with acceptance of your own unique journey is forever within your grasp. It is available at any moment, in any situation. No other person has the power to decide your own worth, for God has already done this for you. You are worthy of the Kingdom of God. You are an essential part of God, a Perfect Child of God who was Created from only Love. You may not be willing, at this time, to accept this simple Truth. That is of no consequence. You cannot alter the Will of Perfection. You have no need to change, to change yourself to be more loved by God, or to become something or someone that you are not. Just as you are, right now, you are Perfect. You may have forgotten your Perfection. You may have covered it in so many layers of illusions, doubts and fears that you believe that it is lost to you forever. But this could never be. Your absolute freedom awaits but the simplest of choices. It is the choice to accept that you are unique and that you are essential to all that lives. In this choice to accept that you can never be replaced, lost, changed or destroyed comes a Peace that transcends all of this world, lifting you up ever closer to Heaven and to the Perfect Heart of God, the genesis of your eternal Soul. Your journey is but an inevitable Return to your Home where you are forever Safe and eternally Loved, just as the Perfect Child of God you have always been and will always be.