Website and Blog Launch!
For twenty plus years I have had the pleasure of working as a pastor and counselor. I’ve also been a professional entertainer. To fuse all of them together on stage as a speaker or in one-to-one sessions as a spiritual director is where I’ve found my greatest satisfaction. Over the years I’ve discovered life-changing principles as I’ve worked with others. I have had the privilege of hearing countless individuals share their own life stories and challenges, inviting me to listen with them for wisdom and guidance. I’ve consulted with leaders of organizations who have needed a little encouragement to carry on their work with a new sense of value and purpose.
During my time as a director and a chaplain at Remuda Ranch, I journeyed with families and their loved ones battling life threatening eating disorders. In my own life I have been challenged to practice these same principles learned. I am not a guru and I have certainly not attained a place of supreme authority, but this I know – I am compelled to share what I have learned with anyone whose hope has faded, that they may discover the life they thought was only a dream.
One day long ago I woke up from a nightmare of the mundane. One day I woke up from a life built around what I thought I should believe and from circumstances I thought I was trapped in, with no visible hope of change. Performers like me can easily hide with no one ever knowing the heart. We mask it with the words I’m ok and we’ve determined never to burden others with the truth. After all, our job as entertainers was to make others happy. Maybe you too have learned that the stage is an illusion and the mask is an emotional facade. That day, I discovered that my misfortunes, poor choices and low self-image were not my identity. I was awakened to the reality that our mere existence is of great worth to the creator. Now many years since leaving “The Gorilla” image, I am returning to the stage with this website and promotion. I’m still a performer but now it is by choice not obligation. It’s unleashed and in a medium I enjoy most, public speaking rather than mask wearing.
I have been speaking for some time now, but never with full-time devotion. Most importantly it is comedy and drama through story telling and it’s with a purpose.
Here’s why I am so excited to launch this website. It is an opportunity to reach an audience of life skeptics who have lived in the shadows of performance. It is to promote The Gorilla story in all of its humor and drama, so that others will experience having a few holes poked in the lid of their jar and breathe again. It is for those who are worn down and disillusioned. For those who have relied on their own willpower in an attempt to rid themselves of destructive behaviors. It’s for those who need to discover the principles that can lead them to new work and relationships. It is for people like me who have found legalistic religious teachings to be life robbing instead of life giving as intended. To develop a faith that is authentic and affirms humanity. I believe we are called to a life of soaring optimism, embracing the truth of our identity and never settling for anything less then a life of transformation. A discovery that we are stronger then the bars that have held us captive. It is a metamorphosis, shedding the cocoon of a label, an unhealthy relationship, life-altering addictions or oppressive spiritual and emotional self-hatred.
There is a way out. There is a way that puts your worst debilitating nightmare in the past and embraces the life your soul has longed for. A way out of the emotional confinement you thought was home, but in reality was the false identity that held you captive. The message is this. You are not a doctor, accountant, teacher, student, athlete or gorilla. You are certainly not an eating disorder, diagnosis or disability. That is not who you are. It may be what you do or what circumstances you’re in but it is not who you are. You are loved nakedly without your title, label or mask! There is a life to be discovered when we unmask. I know because I’ve experienced it and that is why these principles are so unique in presentation.
In the next few weeks I will begin publicly promoting the Henry Rojas website and blog. It will coincide with a soon to air documentary ESPN has begun filming about The Gorilla. Please help me share this message with others by visiting and “liking” the website following the blog. Suggest it to others! I would like it very much if I knew I had a whole army of family and friends walking with me in this effort to use the gorilla story and my learned principles of living, to make an impact on those just like you and me who are ready to really, really live regardless of circumstances and perceived limitations.
Love you all,
Henry
Henry Rojas 