who we truly are

Who we truly are is something beautiful, but it is also something vulnerable and sensitive and easily hit and hurt.

Who we truly are is open, wants to show itself, wants to get in touch and connect. Our true essence needs to breathe and express and interact. It wants to touch and to be touched, wants to amuse and to be amused, wants to speak and do the truth, wants to be spoken to and be done the truth to. Wants to be done away with the filters.

But if you speak and do the truth, you open yourself up for hurt, for the possibility of being the recipient of words and deeds carrying difficult to receive truths. These are truths that will shake you worse than you're willing to be shaken...and you might find out that there is a just compassion and wisdom in withholding truths, that may be necessary... and there is responsibility and grace required, and it is best to learn them if we are to become very expressive and vocal about our truths without causing unnecessary damage in the world around us and inside us.

Are we willing to take the whole package? For there is no such thing as freedom without consequences, freedom without respect and responsibility.

So some questions might be, are you ready to receive the truth after you decide to give it? Are you ready to accept the world's reaction to your authentic self? Are you ready to weather the storm in order to reap the rewards of authenticity? Are you ready to maybe get a bit scolded but also grow because of it? Are you willing to master the art of authenticity?

I know I struggle with these questions myself and I can only assume others do too. I think that is because we know that the price for authenticity is vulnerability and that is obviously uncomfortable. We also know that this is a conversation we will never stop having with ourselves...well, unless you are the kind of person who doesn't have an internal dialogue, in that case you probably don't really have this issue to begin with...but you might, and you wouldn't know it, or not, who knows...just sayin!

However, if you decide that those moments in life when you can feel your authenticity shining through effortlessly without shame or guilt are worth experiencing in greater depth and abundance, but you are in the grip of your insecurities and of the prospect of having to deal with the consequences of presenting yourself as fully as possible to the world, it is important to understand that yes, there is a price to pay, vulnerability, but that every time you pay for something you also get something in return for that price, and if you are paying willingly, usually it is something of value to you.

It is worth reflecting on the fact that maybe a life spent feeling free and alive, comfy in our own true skin, shoes and clothes, even in the middle of whatever shit storm we might find ourselves in, is worth the risk of the expense...maybe, just sayin.

After all, we can do just as fine living in pretence, in autopilot mode, enclosed in protective shells of psychological safety, even if that safety is not 100% assured... nothing wrong with playing a role and staying in our lane, it is definitely easier, and at times even appropriate and necessary...but...it's just that it doesn't feel as right as it should when we spend all of our waking time in that mode, does it... and we know it.

We know that we are living a small life, smaller than it is intended for us, we are not saying what we want to say, not doing what we want to do, not reaching out the way we feel we'd like to, and we know that if we do it with respect and grace there is nothing in the universe that would want us not to express our self with a beautiful and vibrant fullness. Yes, true, for a price, but still!

A little poem to conclude:

If you never get out of the house,

yes, you'll never be caught in the rain,

but you'll also never experience the joy

of getting to know your domain.

Kajo

.