I crave “real.”
I’m drawn to it.
Life is happening all around us…all day…every day. We experience pleasure and pain, joy and sorrow. It doesn’t get more real than that. I find that as I get older, I seek out those people who are courageous enough to be real with me, and not ‘Tony the Tigers” where life is just grrrrreat all the time.
We put on masks because it feels safer, but in the end it feels like a prison. As I go about my day to day activities, I may be smiling on the outside and accomplishing everything on my to do list, but I am grieving over the sudden death of friend. I’m recovering from the stranger who screamed horrible things at me on my driveway six years ago. I battle with insecurity in a number of areas in my life. (And yes, typing those last four sentences was scary, but I’m just trying to “keep it real,” here.) As I get older, it just doesn’t seem to matter as much to me if my purse matches my shoes, or what the latest fad is.
I am drawn to people who have the courage to be honest and real with me. I admire their strength. It is like an open invitation that beckons me to come out from behind my mask and risk being seen….really seen, by another person. If they see something in me that makes them feel safe enough to be vulnerable, then maybe, just maybe they will be compassionate and understanding with me…
…and I feel free.
I liked your statement that the masks we wear "in the end feel like a prison." So true.
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ReplyDeleteThat's it, isn't it? "... safe enough to be vulnerable ...".
And for this reason, the older we get, the fewer and truer our frinds are I think!
Wishing you a wonderful weekend!
Those masks certainly become a prison. I also struggle with quite a bit of insecurity, and keeping those masks off is anxious work. I'm learning how. :)
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