Written by Jalyce Elizabeth

In my idle time, I get quite engrossed in the many corners and communities that make up the internet.  I’ve explored basket-weaving, jewelry-making, metal-crafting, wig-slaying, etc.  My most recent fascination is niche gardening; more specifically, cube watermelons.  The melons are placed in containers and grow into whatever shape they’re in.  

In some ways, cube watermelons are more functional than merely ornamental.  They’re easier to cut.  And they fit better in refrigerators.  The container acts as a blueprint of sorts, a guarantee for certainty.  You know exactly what size they’ll grow to be, and thus, how many you can transport, store, etc.  

Rules, plans, and labels perform a similar function for humans.  They can ensure certain outcomes and give us boundaries that reduce the likelihood of danger.  But I wonder how they limit our growth.  

All of us are born into communities that, in so many words, and with so many micro-aggressions, tell us who we should be.  Some of us are born into a world of systems that actively work to inhibit our possibilities.  And as we grow, we even limit ourselves with labels and schemes we crouch to fit. 

These fences make up the walls of our containers.  We’re incased in cubes from birth.  Should we be surprised by the shapes we’re in?  

How have your surroundings dictated your shape?     

Considering this question begins a practice of detached awareness.  It is to create space between you and your setting to become cognizant of who you’ve become and why.  Awareness may seem passive, but it’s your first step to power.  How can we fight systems that we do not know are there?  When we zoom out, we can see the labels we’ve adopted, the ill fit of the roles we wear, and the rails constructed to control us.  

Simple awareness of what confines us is the lightning bolt that cracks the box.  It ignites a yearning to find a way beyond the boundaries and toward your divine shape—who you were created to become.  Can you imagine who you could grow to be without the container?  

Ignore the boundaries and the lies that tell you what you can and can't do.  God is too big to be contained. Don't limit yourself, you are here on this earth to do extraordinary things.