Untamed Spirit

Earlier this week, I began reading author Glennon Doyle’s latest release, Untamed. In the prologue, she shares a story of taking her young children to the zoo where they, along with other zoo-goers, witnessed a demonstration involving a cheetah born into captivity. With the intention to tame her, the cheetah was raised alongside a Labrador retriever and learned to mimic the dog’s behaviors.

During the daily exhibition at the zoo, hosted by a zoo employee, the Labrador, within view of the cheetah, chased a stuffed rabbit which was tied to a Jeep bumper. At the end of the chase, the dog was rewarded with a treat. Having observed the dog, the cheetah was released from her pen and chased the same stuffed rabbit to the end of the track. She was then rewarded with a large raw steak which she hungrily devoured.

During a Q&A following this display, one of the children asked if the cheetah is sad not being in the wild. The zookeeper responded that having been born in captivity, the cheetah has a good life in the zoo where she is safe and cared for. She assured the child that the cheetah, having never known the wild, is much better off in the zoo.

Continuing to observe the cheetah who had been returned to her fenced area, Doyle and her daughter sensed that, even though she was born in captivity, the cheetah still possessed a wild spirit and would break free from her captives if given the opportunity.

The author goes on to share her own stories of being “tamed” by society and doing her best to fit in, to belong, and to be accepted. The book is an autobiographical account of her struggles to break free and be Untamed.

As I read her words, I was reminded of the universality of Doyle’s experience. Most, if not all of us, can relate to this in some way. I know I can. We are conditioned by the culture in which we live to conform to its accepted standards. This applies to our ways of self-expression, including creativity, gender roles, sexual orientation, social status based on skin color, ethnicity, education, and finances, as well as body shape and appearance.

Much like the wild cheetah, born into captivity and taught to conform to the behaviors of a domesticated animal, we are conditioned to look, think and act in ways that conform to the expectations of the people around us and to deny our untamed spirits.

As Henry David Thoreau once said,

“The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. What is called resignation is confirmed desperation.”

We all have within us an untamed spirit longing to be released and run free. For many of us, that wild spirit is hidden beneath the veil of years of conditioning by and conforming to the world. There is an aspect of us, our essential selves, just waiting for us to claim it and live it.

In Unity, we believe and teach that our way shower, Jesus, experienced the same sorts of conditioning that we do. He was a Jew living in Roman occupied Israel. He was conditioned by his religion, ethnicity, nationality and heritage. He learned to do what was necessary to belong and be safe in his surroundings. Since we do not have much information in our Christian Scriptures about his early life, we can only surmise, based on historical data, what his life was like. What we do know from our Scriptures is that his baptism was a turning point in his life, and one that we can allow to be a guide for us.

Jesus’s baptism symbolizes his willingness and readiness to release the conditioning of his past, accept his divine nature and be reborn into a new way of being in the world centered in his untamed spirit.

After his baptism, he dares to come face-to-face with his conditioned self, as represented by his 40 days and nights in the wilderness facing Satan’s temptations. Through all of that, he breaks free from the cage of his limited idea of himself and emerges ready to live his highest mission. He moves beyond the veil of conditioning and into the freedom of Spirit.

We, too, can free ourselves from the conditioning of the world by following Jesus’s example, not literally, but metaphorically. Every moment is an opportunity to release ourselves from the past and be reborn in the spirit. We can choose moment-by-moment to accept and realize our divine nature. We can hear the voice of Spirit saying to us, “This is my child in whom I am well pleased.” We can embrace our courage and faith and meet our conditioned minds head on. We can make a choice today to serve our true selves – the Christ within. We can move forward day after day making the conscious decisions to be true to our highest calling.

We, too, can reclaim our untamed spirit and answer the call of the wild within us. I encourage us to go within, remember who we truly are, and set a clear intention to live it.