We all do it from time to time-slip into playing a role instead of being real.
Sometimes it just takes too much energy to take off the mask and show my real face to the world.
Because if I do, it might raise questions or provoke judgement or even frighten folks and who wants to deal with that?
You want to know a secret?
Everyone, EVERYONE, wonders if they are “normal”.
And we all try on different masks trying to hide the real us just in case we aren’t.
But none of them fit, none of them are comfortable and none of them really hide everything we wish they did.
So we go through life pretending to be someone we’re not, hoping the performance is adequate, making friends with people who are also wearing a mask and wondering why in the world it feels so false and unfulfilling.
I love, love, love this little poem by Shel Silverstein. He had a way of distilling truth to a few memorable words:
One of the gifts grief has given me is that I just do not have the energy to keep my mask on straight.
So I’ve decided to take it off.
And I find that when I do, people aren’t horrified, they are relieved.
Because that means they can take theirs off too.
❤
thelifeididntchoose 