How do you strengthen your identity if you don’t remember who you are? And what’s the difference between your story and your identity? This week, I had an incredible conversation with CJ Casciotta that dives into how we rediscover our identity. CJ is a Media Producer and the Author of Get Weird. Truly, this conversation was so great! CJ offers insight into the problems we face today in discovering our identity, and how it is often confused with our story. If you’ve felt like you have lost yourself along the way and need to make your way back, this is a great episode for you! Plus, you will want to hear CJ read the poems he wrote!
Find CJ’s work at recultu.re
Follow and support his Company, Ringbeller at makeuskinder.com
Now check out CJ’s Poems…
The Dust You Were Made From
You know the truth deep inside you.
May you doubt a thousand things but never that.
Let it steady you and guide you home instantly.
Do not search for my voice (or perhaps the voice you might wish I had)
when lies disguise themselves and try to disguise you as well.
But look for yours alone, not far off on some unreachable island
or locked behind a certain threshold.
There is a strength that begins in the dust you were made from and branches out broader than your body
for you to run freely in
or sit, or lie down in—
whatever you know it’s meant for.
Copyright CJ Casciotta.
A Soft Voice
I hope you develop a soft voice.
While this comes naturally to some
For others it is learned, or else it is forced.
For many, we must unlearn the clanging of pots and pans,
The fist punching at airwaves,
The curriculum that taught us to annex
Decibels and frequencies
From gym class to calls with customer service.
Only when a voice realizes it needn’t try to breathe under water
Does it rise to the level of sunlight
Branded by an ancient silence, a fiery strength.
Copyright CJ Casciotta.
“We have the choice of two identities: the external mask which seems to be real and which lives by a shadowy autonomy for the brief moment of earthy existence, and the hidden, inner person who seems to us to be nothing, but who can give himself eternally to the truth in whom he subsists.”
– Thomas Merton, New Seeds of Contemplation
Explore these topics more in my book, The Life You’re Made For