You don’t need ANYTHING other than what you have right now. You don’t need to BE any MORE than WHO YOU ARE RIGHT NOW.

There is nothing to do and nothing not to do... who you are now, what you’re doing now is the most valuable part of Life. Can you see it?

There is no step-by-step plan to anything Truly valuable.... to an artful expression there is only an immersion so complete with what IS that it shatters the delusion that everyone has of what should be - in that moment the art connects the deepest part of who we are.

My dad has a comical “old-man-one-liner” that he has now been repeating for years since his "depression". Anytime someone tells him he “should” or “should not” do or say or think something he responds with either,

“Are you should’ng on me?”

Or simply

“don’t should on me thank you”.

Initially I found this irritating while he remained aloof and “set in his ways” until I came to understand that my irritation had much more to do with me than it had to do with him. Uncompromisingly "himself" however “inconsiderate” or “ignorant” it seemed to someone else. He has come to an understanding that likely played a pivotal role in pulling him from the depths of his despair and so he has wrapped it up neatly in a gentle yet sharp life principle in the form of a homophone.

Kept it simple & stupid.

"Don’t should on me."

You can keep your should to yourself and wrestle with the stench and the discomfort if you choose but I want no part in it.

How much do you suffer in your own should? Never mind should’ing on others.

Consider how many times you think you SHOULD do something or you SHOULD be more of this or less of that. You SHOULD have said something or maybe you SHOULDN’T have. You SHOULDN’T eat too much, you SHOULD just let it go. You SHOULD go to the gym, and SHOULD watch less Netflix, you SHOULD be more mindful and meditate, you SHOULD try yoga, you SHOULDN’T be so hard on yourself.... I could keep going but I think you get the picture...

I am not saying that this is wrong or right, there is no such thing... but if you examine the effect of living with such a rigid dictator-like thought pattern, is it not exhausting?

This is perhaps the ultimate offense we commit with children as they go through the school system. We send them away to have a handful of “so-called” professionals “SHOULD” all over their innocent and genuine desire to play, explore & discover Life Freely.

You shouldn’t talk, you shouldn’t run, you shouldn’t laugh, you should line up in a perfectly straight line and walk with the same dull listlessness that the depressed and over-worked teacher walks, you should FOCUS on this menial and empty topic or task, you should lock your creative side in the darkest corner of your soul. You should never raise your voice to express the churning emotional turmoil that society is brewing in you. You should KNOW this already, you should be CALM, you should be mindful...

The result?

Depression. Anxiety. Uniformity. ADHD and drugging kids to an unrecognizable but easily controlled stupor. A “well functioning” classroom, which relates to society at large...

The blind leading the blind... or more precisely, the blind poking out the eyes of those unsuspecting innocent souls.

A virus.

An entire population that can no longer recognize what IS... because they are too busy trying to change it into what SHOULD BE.

Perhaps you think I am over-exaggerating, maybe I SHOULDN’T be so severe...

Or maybe.

"Don’t should on me."

Instead... why not spend some time digging out of your own SHOULDS.

Find out who you ARE and what you really WANT.

Or don’t.

But you just might miss out.

#shutdownallschools #dontshouldonme *Inspired by working in kids prisons (or schools as they are also known) & a poem I was read recently by Georgia Heard called "Straight Lines"