“Perhaps home is not a place but simply an irrevocable condition,” James Baldwin wrote in Giovanni’s Room. He opened a door of deeper meaning for his readers and affirmed what I believe with every fiber of my being: You are always right at home in your body.

I close my eyes and make myself right at home in my body. My favorite declaration is “I am somebody.” Say it with me: “I am somebody.”

I am also a homebody and introversion aids in my “inward journey.” I have traveled far enough in silence, away from the racket of empire and the fuss that is made of its various and unnecessary competitions, that not much can get to me. But when it does and it does, I turn inward and go home. I pack up myself and leave—without ever moving a muscle.

Thus, you belong right where you are. And if you ever forget, close your eyes, put your hand over your heart and declare, “I am somebody.” It doesn’t matter what you possess or whether you have discerned your purpose. You are here and apart of the “Ground of Being.” You cannot be moved. You have some body and more than a little wiggle room.

It is an embodied faith as I am spiritual formed within “this here flesh” as Cole Arthur Riley refers to it. It is more than moving your body or ensuring that it is in a particular place at a set time. No, it is coming home to your body and staying there—no matter who or what knocks at the door. More than familiar, it is to know yourself inside out.

It is the “inwardness of religion” as Howard Thurman calls it in The Creative Encounter. He writes,

As a person each of us lives a private life; there is a world within where for us the great issues of our lives are determined. It is here that at long last the “yea” and “nay” of our living is defined, declared. It is private. It is cut off from immediate involvement in what surrounds us. It is my world.

Yes, I am in my own world—not to be confused with living in a bubble or in isolation. Instead, I am building my own world as Jean Toomer explains with great specificity:

I must see my understandings produce results in human experience. Productivity is my first value. I must make and mold and build life. As an artist, I must shape human relationships. To me, life itself is the greatest material. I would far rather build a man (sic) than form a book. My whole being is devoted to making my small area of existence a work of art. I am building a world.

And if you are not, then let this serve as a building permit. Get to work. Get inside yourself and dig deep all while humming, “I am somebody.”