Are we doing a disservice with labels?

From the moment we’re conceived, the world starts asking:

What are you?

Boy or girl. Blue or pink. Strong or sensitive.

Labels that feel like guidance at first… until they start to feel like cages.

Even before we take our first breath, we’re sorted.

Gender reveals, baby registries, monogrammed onesies.

Later it’s political parties, belief systems, job titles, diagnoses, astrological signs, enneagram types, identities.

And sometimes, labels help.

They give us language for our experience.

They connect us to community.

They help us understand who we are in a world that doesn’t always feel like home.

But what happens when the labels stop helping?

The Cost of Certainty

A non-binary friend once said something that stuck in my bones:

“If I choose to be one thing, it stops me from being all the other things.”

And wow… isn’t that the tension?

We crave identity. But sometimes identity becomes identity politics — the kind that divides, limits, or reduces us.

We crave community. But sometimes community becomes exclusion — where you’re either in or out.

We want to be understood. But sometimes we box ourselves in so others can understand us… even when the box no longer fits.

The Middle Way

What if we let ourselves be fluid?

What if the labels weren’t prisons, but portals?

What if your spirituality didn’t cancel out your science?

Your femininity didn’t conflict with your power?

Your queerness didn’t mean you had to speak for all queerness?

You don’t have to be one thing.

You’re allowed to be all the things. Or none of the things.

You’re allowed to change, question, undo, and reassemble.

A Sanctuary for the Undefined

At Source & Sanctuary, I want to create space for people who don’t quite fit into the boxes — or are tired of pretending to.

This is a place where labels can be worn lightly, or laid down entirely.

A place to be real, not reduced. Whole, not categorized. Seen, not sorted.

You don’t have to declare who you are.

You just have to be.