Why did we ever forget our true self?

 

Because forgetting creates space.

 

The more you forget who you are, the more open your consciousness becomes, the more raw and fully the experience can enter.

 

A newborn baby is the purest example: completely empty, without a story about itself, one vast open portal for everything that is – love, pain, wonder, fear, warmth. Everything comes in unfiltered.

 

And it is precisely that intensity that teaches us.

It is precisely that depth that enriches us.

 

So “forgetting” is not an accident or a punishment – it is the clever, loving design of the game

 

But every game has an end.

 

The credits roll across the screen.

 

You lay down the controller.

 

The lights in the theater turn on.

 

And then… the most beautiful moment arrives: coming home.

 

You remember who you are again

 

That remembering feels like a soft explosion of light in your chest. Tears of recognition. A laughter rising from deep within. Home. Finally home.

 

But what exactly is that “true self”?

 

Think of a memory from your childhood. Maybe ten, twenty, forty years ago. The Earth has traveled millions of miles through space since then. Your body is made of different atoms now. Your thoughts were different, your emotions were different, your height, your voice, your face – everything was different.

 

And yet, without a second of hesitation, you say: “That was me.”

 

There is something that remains the same through time and space. Something that does not age, does not decay, does not disappear. That something exists outside of time. Outside of space. That is you – your true self.

 

Your body travels through the years.

Your experiences accumulate in time.

But you, the observer of all those experiences, stand beyond it.

Timeless. Unchanging. Eternal.

 

And when you realize that, something enormous falls away

 

The great tragedy of impermanence – everything breaks, everyone dies, everything disappears – suddenly turns out to be an illusion.

 

Nothing that truly exists can ever be lost.

 

It can only be forgotten… and later remembered.

 

Your true self has the gift of being in contact with everything, always.

 

With the grandmother you have missed for years.

With the pet from your childhood.

With the blossom you once smelled as a child.

 

With people you have never met in this lifetime.

 

With everything that ever was, is, or will be.

 

Because for your essence, time and space are not barriers.

 

Because everything still exists in an eternal now.

 

Because love is never truly interrupted.

 

And then comes the quietest, most powerful truth: Everything is one.

 

And because everything is one… you are everything

 

There is no small part of “you” that stands apart from the rest.

 

That would break the unity.

 

You are not a spectator of the universe.

 

You are the universe experiencing itself.

 

When you look at a tree and truly see…

 

When you look into an animal’s eyes and truly feel…

 

When you meet another human being and truly connect…

 

... you are meeting yourself.

 

And in that meeting, joy ignites. The quiet, radiant, childlike joy of coming home.

 

That is what happens when you remember your true self. Not a grand enlightenment with drums and fanfare. But a soft, deep, unstoppable smile from within.

 

Welcome home

 

You were never gone.

 

Just remember.

 

You are already home.

 

What do you feel as you read this?

 

Perhaps a small spark of recognition?

 

That spark… is you.

 

That is your true self gently whispering: “I am here.

 

I have always been here.

 

And I love you – exactly as you are.”

 

Let it come in.

 

You do not have to do anything for it.

 

Only… remember.

© Gerrit Gielen
www.gerrit-gielen.net