At the simplest level, lome is a platform to share information about principles of life that are learned from life. There are principles of life which are lesser known and are often misunderstood. There are values that we find non-negotiable because when we live in alignment with those values, something within feels deeply affirmed. We feel expansive. We feel strong within.
It is about creating a life that we choose for ourselves, in alignment with the values that we find true to us. We discern through life experience what works and what doesn’t work. What doesn’t work helps us reflect on how we currently understand life, and what needs to shift so that life feels aligned and empowered.
This is what lome is really about—life… chosen by self, guided by life, in alignment with values that we find true for us.
Should you wish to dig further, read on… ツ
The purpose of lome is not to teach anything to anyone, because each of us has the power to decide for ourselves what is best in any given moment. I am the author of this website, and in lome, I am following my own inclination—to share what I have come to believe can help us live a self-empowered life that is self-chosen.
Why me?
First of all, because I want to. I feel most aligned when I am speaking about and creating content around living a self-chosen life.
The first principle of lome: personal honesty. Honesty in accepting my own desire to do something without the need for any kind of justification. No justification is needed for the desires of my heart, but…
Yes, there is a “but,” because “no justification needed” can be misunderstood.
This brings up the core premise of lome: freedom. Freedom of the self and those around us—to choose or to refuse. We have absolute freedom to choose or act on that which we want, but if we are to tap into true personal power, then our choices may not impinge upon others’ freedom.
Up until seven or eight years ago, my dominant understanding was that others’ desires and choices could affect my freedom. More importantly, I understood that if I were absolutely honest in my desires, they could affect others negatively. So I closed off parts of me.
On the surface, I always believed that I made my own choices, even when the choice was not something I’d have made if I didn’t perceive a negative effect on others or a conflict with a deeply ingrained moral belief.
The choices I made were made to “do it right,” because that’s how I understood my beliefs and life.
This created a dishonesty within me—not an overt, intentional dishonesty, but a dishonesty with the people I cared for the most, and most importantly, with myself… all in the effort to do it right, to stay aligned with what I believed.
And thus followed two and a half decades of digging within myself, dismantling slowly—like peeling layers and layers of an onion—to find new meaning for the right thing to do, honesty, integrity, and the personal right to choose or to refuse.
Today, my beliefs have radically shifted; my vision is clear and concrete; my relationships are honest and loving.
My life has changed drastically, but I have chosen this life. My context for life has changed: there are no mistakes in life.
No, it is not just a rhetorical statement. It is a firm conviction within me today because it is rooted in love. As I look back at my life, there is only one way for me to see: even the most difficult-seeming moments of life were in the pursuit of one thing—to live my life in honesty for myself and let love find a chance without conditions.
Today, my relationships are based on love without obligation and without having to fit myself into someone else’s code of righteous conduct.
Most of it happened over the last two and a half decades. Old beliefs had to go. New ideas that resonated were considered and took hold within as personal convictions over time, because in time, life became more and more honest and sovereign.
No, I am not perfect by any standard. Life continues to evolve, and I will always be a work in progress.
The intent in lome is not to teach, but to share what I have come to believe over time because it helped me build a life of personal conviction, and to let others choose what resonates or reject what doesn’t on their own path of creating a life of their choosing.
lome can be anything you choose.
It’s a living, breathing organism, continuously evolving because we are evolving. lome is not rigid, nor does it pretend to be a repository of absolute truths. It is a place of exploring personal resonance, and that’s it. The ultimate choice belongs to you.
In the Tolkien world, lome is a gentle twilight—a quiet night viewed with favor, free from gloom or fear.
Think of lome as a lighthouse on the shore. It doesn’t tell you where to sail; it simply stays lit in the quiet dusk, guiding us home and illuminating the way forward to where we choose to go.
You get to choose what lome means to you.
You replace l with h and it is home.
You remove l and e, and it is om.
You replace m with v, and it is love.
That is the one that’s most dear to me—love.