Paul Dunion, EdD

There are ancient rivals named Becoming and 

Being. Even if you have not thought about Becoming

or talked about it, your body knows Becoming 

as doing. You get educated, pursue occupational 

goals, you achieve, you create a home, you pay bills

and rake leaves in Autumn. 

Without a great deal of consideration, you give

Becoming the power to hold your essential worth.

And rightly so, you build, you generate, you create,

you fix, you teach and maybe you heal. However, 

there comes a time when the weight of the soul’s

sacredness asks for more. 

When does striving bring a fatigue to the soul? 

Have you allowed yourself to feel how lost you

may become amidst the pile of actions? Can you

pause and wonder who you might be when you 

crawl out from that pile? How many successes

will be enough to confirm that you are enough?

If you know the emptiness of Becoming, then 

trust that knowing. Becoming has its place and

it’s not enough to birth meaning and depth. 

You know the whispers of Being when you give

yourself permission to nap. There is Being in 

the tenderness of deserving rest. 

Deservedness is the cradle of Being. It puts 

proving to rest. Proving is so easily laced 

through all expressions of Becoming. Proving

hides itself behind the veils of being ambitious,

 productive, creative and responsible. Proving

possesses an insatiable hunger. 

We prove that we are enough, deserving of love.

We prove we are worthy of forgiveness regarding

our last transgression. We attempt to prove we 

merit redemption for having loved poorly. These 

strivings are of no avail; they simply place us on

the mountain with Sisyphus – forever incomplete.

Being is knocking on the door of your soul when

urgency subsides, when doing loses its tenacity

and the next best thing to do fades behind the 

shadow of an incandescent light cast by the joy

of what is happening now, no matter how simple.

The gift of Being is a love asking for no proof.