A love letter to Seekers

In my last reflection, I spoke to the ways we reach for medicines, for tools, for anything that helps us stay open in a world that often feels too much to bear. This is where we continue—deeper into the longing, deeper into the courage it takes to keep reaching, and into the balance between remembering and letting go.

Let me speak to all of us

who keep reaching

for something to help us

remember how to stay open

All of us who know

both the medicine

and the dependency

both the expansion

and the price

~

Here's the truth I've found:

We reach

because we long to remember.

Remember what it feels like when our hearts are open.

Remember what it feels like to breathe beyond our walls.

Remember what it feels like to be free, even for a moment.

And yes - the wine helps.

The smoke helps.

The ceremonies help.

The peak experiences help.

They show us other rooms in this mansion of being.

They remind us what's possible.

They give us a break from the weight of a world

that's always telling us we're not enough.

It takes courage to reach for expansion

in a culture built on violence.

It takes courage to seek softness

in a world obsessed with hardening.

And then we find ourselves dependent.

Find ourselves needing these tools

just to remember how to breathe.

Just to remember how to feel.

We try to stop.

We really do.

But here's what nobody talks about:

We'd rather expand with risk

than contract with safety.

We'd rather feel open for a moment

than closed for a lifetime.

Because this culture?

It's brutal on an open heart.

Every day screaming about competition,

about status,

about a million ways you don't measure up.

Here is a gentle reminder -

That shame you feel about needing help to stay open?

That's not yours.

That guilt about your dependencies?

That's not yours either.

We share a collective psychosis -

A forgetfulness trauma of being cut-off - kicked out… for “wrong being”

Most of us are more comfortable

feeling wrong about ourselves

than being curious about ourselves.

That's the real addiction right there.

The addiction to our stories of shame, guilt and wrongness-

Victims of our own journeys

Even our medicine journeys,

our psychedelic breakthroughs,

our moments of pure connection -

they can become another dependency

when everyday life feels like warfare.

So to all my beautiful strugglers,

all my fringy seekers,

all my psychedelic warriors

trying to battle your own medicine:

Take a breath.

Take a break from the war.

Yes, living substance-free is possible.

Yes, keeping your heart open without help is possible.

But let me tell you -

it's some of the hardest work there is.

Especially in this world.

Especially in this culture.

Especially when we're all so afraid

of our own light.

So while you're working on that

(and I'm working on that)

can we be a little gentler?

A little more curious?

A little more honest?

Can we admit that sometimes

we need help remembering

how to stay open?

To all of us

beautiful strugglers

medicine seekers

truth dealers

May we learn to love

our reaching

as much as our arriving

May we forgive ourselves

for needing help

to remember who we are

May we keep choosing expansion

even when it scares us

even when it changes us

even when it breaks us

open

Again

and again

and again

~

Love, Oriya