is your juice worth a squeeze…?

if you took a lemon and put it into a barn and squeezed it… what would come out? if you took the same lemon and put it in the White House and squeezed it… what would come out? if you took the same lemon and put it in a night club and squeezed it… what would come out? you got a little bit o’ lemon juice didn’t you?… how is it that the different environments didn’t tell the lemon who it was and what it was supposed to produce… yet humans live in a mindset that they must avoid certain places and environments in order to be who they are?… how is it that something external can tell you who you are? does a man when he wake up have to remember that he is a man? no! he does everything from the identity of being a man… same for a woman… as a matter of fact if i took you and told you 6 times a minute for 60 minutes that you were the opposite sex of what you really are… would you wonder about your sex? no! would you lose sleep over it? no! if i told the lemon it was an apple… would it begin to squirt apple juice? no! yet why is it that we are told to avoid this or that we must do that in order to maintain our identity? if you have to do something in order to have it… then is it even really who you are? does a lemon have more mastery over who it is then you?

what would happen in this world if people started living from a position of power… a position of intent… a position from which they know that they dictate to their environment what it is not letting their environment dictate to them…

what would happen if everywhere you went… everywhere your foot stepped… everywhere you spent time… the environment there changed to reflect who you are inside… would the world want to actually squeeze you to see what would come out?… what would happen to the environment around you if it began to reflect who you are on the inside?… do you talk lemon but a squeeze would show you’re an apple?

imagine for a minute a life where no matter where you were… regardless of who was around you… no matter what was happening… it would never change you… never alter you… never shake you… never move you… never intimidate you… never confuse you… never frustrate you… never scare you… never bore you… never hurt you… imagine a life where you had such a mastery over your identity that it doesn’t matter how loud the world screams at you… how hard circumstances squeeze… how passionately lies try to persuade you… how seductively temptations try to sway you… … … you . simply . stand . still . like . a . rock . unshaken . unperturbed . unfazed . resolute . firm . strong . powerful . confident . … just imagine…

do you think that kind of life is possible if you rely on the external for your identity? do you think that you will ever Master yourself if you constantly move to the whims of your environment?

if i dropped you off in the middle of a war torn zone in africa, would you know who you are? if i dropped you in the middle of a desert, would you know who you are? if i dropped you in the far depths of a foreign culture, would you know who you are? would that environment, when it came into contact with you, change to become you or would you change into it? does the season tell you what is up or are you the season telling the environment what is up?

if i stripped you of all your earthly possessions, would you still know who you are? if i stripped you of all your friends, would you still know who you are? if i stripped you of your entire family, would you still know who you are? standing there… stripped of everything you ever owned… stripped of all your friends… stripped of all your family… without a thing, friendly face, or loved one…. and the world squeezed you like it was going to kill you… what would come out?… would you die? would you give up? would you beg? would you plead? … would you smile? would you stand still? would you tell the world what it is? would … you … still … know … who … you … are?

is your juice worth a squeeze…?