Hotel Woman

I experienced an interesting article this morning. Hotel First Nation, written by Robert Animikii Horton, was inspired by the movie Hotel Rwanda and describes the many divisions within our human existence and how those divisions distract us from knowing the truth of UNITY and Community.

While I've been circling around an understanding of division, duality and the many undertones carried by them that affect us on a personal level, whether we are conscious of it or not, I hadn't thought of it this way. In experiencing this article I have a new understanding of many things including Gandhi's quote "you must be the change you wish to see in the world". I am inspired to contribute to the movement of ‘change’ beginning with me.

If the change I wish to see in the world is PEACE then I must Be or Allow peace within myself. Throughout the article and to illustrate the point, the author replaced the words Hotel Rwanda with Hotel First Nations. I continued following this path and allowed it to take me on a tour of division and duality in my own personal world. In each of these hotels were examples of the separateness in my own life.

I was led to Hotel New Jersey and saw division on a large scale, to Hotel Buckalew where although there is a greater sense of unity, division and duality still exist, to Hotel Lisa where I caught a glimpse of the duality within me and my ‘rejection’ of certain aspects of my own Self. I thought that this is where the path would end and that it was here that I would stop and hold the space for Unity to manifest in my self and my life. That it was here where I would practice unconditional love and create peace within myself by accepting and embracing ALL aspects of me. That it was here that I would practice nurturing and healing the wounds that create division in my own BEing … and then, to my surprise, I was led to yet another Hotel.

The paintings on the walls in the lobby of Hotel Woman are many in number and represent women and the many labels we have been given throughout time. Some of these labels are quite beautiful and honor the female Essence in a positive and uplifting way while others are quite the opposite and paint a picture of the parts of ourselves that we, and perhaps others as well, might prefer we keep hidden.

I then saw myself standing naked in the center of the lobby of Hotel Woman. My assignment was to clothe myself by using the paintings on the walls. Which will I choose? I found myself drawn to the more beautiful aspects of the Essence of Woman and I chose the paintings that would cover me in the most positive and uplifting light. I placed these over me in a fashion that would hide what I consider to be the ‘uglier’ aspects of me. With the most beautiful aspects of Woman covering me in a gown fit for a queen or a Goddess I danced around the room.

At some point I became conscious of what was still left hanging on the walls … the things that I had not chosen to adorn myself with and saw that now the lobby of Hotel Woman no longer contained an accurate representation of the true Essence of Woman. I had created division and duality by choosing only the most beautiful aspects and leaving the rest, the uglier parts, still on the walls, dismissed and labeled as ‘not me’.

I had been conscious of this duality as it relates to loving accepting and encouraging myself as ‘Lisa’ yet although I have been awakening to it I had not been fully aware that there is a deeper part of me that requires that same acceptance on a much deeper level as a Woman AND that this understanding and acceptance is an essential building block to the true unconditional love and peace that I aspire to create in my life.

The lesson learned today or, more truly, the gift received today in standing in the lobby of Hotel Woman is the understanding that the true Essence of Woman is experienced through ALL aspects of woman and not just the beautiful ones. Embracing ALL aspects of ‘Woman’ as my own and choosing to clothe myself with a balanced selection will assist me to understand how the true Essence of ‘Lisa’ is experienced the same way. That by accepting ALL aspects of myself – the good, the bad and the ugly – with unconditional love, I unlock the doors to true Peace within myself which is an essential and foundational building block to BEing the change I wish to see in the world.

With love and gratitude,
Lisa