“But I don’t want to go among mad people,” Alice remarked.

“Oh, you can’t help that,” said the Cat, “We’re all mad here. I’m mad. You’re mad.”

“How do you know I’m mad?” said Alice.

“You must be,” said the Cat, “or you wouldn’t have come here.”

Most people like to fit in. Most people like to feel that all the other people feel that they are quite normal. And other people like to be around people who are very safe, predictable, and well, ordinary. Only, as Alice is told by the Cheshire Cat, we are all mad. There is not a person on this planet that does not have a little secret, or a strange little something they have done, or do. And yet, on and on we go, all the time attempting to be normal.

And ‘normal’ changes all the time. Mostly, people just want to fit in, to blend in with others, to feel that they do not stand out in any way. Standing out can make us vulnerable. It can make us conspicuous. Although our culture adores its iconic people, we do not generally tolerate difference very well. The truth is, we all have our little oddities, and we can exhaust ourselves trying to erase their visibility.

We hide who we truly are. We do not speak of who we are, and we try to convince others that we are just like them. Consider why you would hide any of your own strangeness, when as the Cheshire Cat says, we are all mad here. And we must all be mad – otherwise we would not be here, living another lifetime, brave enough, mad enough, to learn more on this journey of the soul.

Beginning to realize that everyone is interesting, a little bit different and full of secrets, good and bad. Understanding that hiding what makes you your very own self is not only exhausting, but it is robbing the world of your unique wonder. Discovering that you are a little mad – and so, in truth, is everyone else. Embrace your eccentricities and your own peculiar genius.

~ the Alice Wonderland oracle by Lucy Cavendish