Ego Recipe. (What’s In It for You?)

What do you do when your bondage is beautiful?

When optics are everything

and your makeup is flawless,

When expectations leave you

Empty handed and disappointed,

What do you need?

What have come

to this garden to find?

And can you grow here?

Did the thing you’re seeking

Show up tonight?

Did you read the fine print?

“Perfection hinders progress”

Are you crucifying awaken ones

For their lack of buzz words?

Turning them back to the comfort

Of their pretty prisons?

Though, they’ll never be free,

Would they prefer their illusions

To arbitrary arguments with you?

Is there grace in your religion?

Or are you just as cruel

As the paradigm you are seeking to dismantle?

With less agency and privilege to offer?

Is your home open to foreigners

Or do you live in closed practice?

Is your justice rooted in karmic balance or vengeance?

Have you spoken with your anger and grief?

If so, what did they say to you?

If not, are you rejecting them because they’re ugly to you?

Do you have room for humanity?

And all that comes with it?

Does your own humanity

meet the standard you’ve set?

Are you seeking revolution

so that you can be king?

Or is it true liberation that you desire?

“Prophets are only without honor in their own home”

But are your people radicalized?

Or do only strangers listen to you?

Do those closest to you

Trust you to show up for them?

Do you trust them to do the same?

Can you mobilize your family?

Can you trust your family?

Can you speak openly and

honestly with them?

Are all the skeletons out the closet?

And bones laid to rest with

compassion, grace, honor, and dignity?

Or will they have something to scandalize

When they raid your home?

In other words,

For whom do you do this work?

Are you here to be heard and seen?

Do you just want to be remembered for something?

Would you still work this hard

If they never know who you are?

Would you still care this much

If they never see your face?

Or give you credit for how you’ve inspired them?

Do you still plant the seeds

If you can’t live long enough to share the fruit or the shade of the trees?

For whom do you do this work?

Do you want to break free from all forms of conformity and confinement?

Or are you content to trade in your shackles

For ones that are diamond studded like tennis bracelets?

Do you desire liberation?

And what would you do with it if you had it?

Does the wheel keep you productive?

Would you further descend into darkness

With more time for debauchery?

Or would you use your time to build community and show up for those you love?

Is time really precious to you?

Or do you just resent structure?

How is your relationship with your father and have you healed it?

Do you talk to your mother and have you forgiven her?

Do you know what liberation looks like?

And where do you go to find it?

Do you think you could solve another places problems before you’ve solved the ones at home?

Does your passport serve your community?

What do you bring back home?

What is growing in your garden?

Who is tending to it?

Is the grass green?

Are you liberated yet?