Unmasked

Any good artist wishes to capture emotion, their own but also yours.  They want to relate. The medium used may vary as can the emotions they try to elicit. Ever hear “A picture is worth a thousand words”, how about a melody or song that can stir up deep feelings we might not have even realized we had.  Realtors even suggest you bake a batch of brownies when trying to sell your home, because the aroma is so enticing, it conjures up the idea of happiness in the home.  Emotions are real and part of our natural being and we seem to be distancing ourselves from them.  Some watch movies in the privacy of their homes to see actors portray feelings that are too messy to share with others, just so they can have a release.   Others can’t watch a movie or read a book that is too sad, because it is too difficult to “feel.”   We’ve seemed to have put on masks.

Today I’d like us to try to recapture the childlike trusting images of our days gone by.  To help us remember when we had the ability to be who we were, before we got caught up in life’s rules and regulations.  Before we started trying to be perfect.  Life just keeps throwing out curve balls and we aren’t sure if we should be trying to catch them or duck away from them!  We push through our days, and push back any emotions we don’t have time to deal with and thus put on masks.  We show the world a perfect veneer, while hiding the ugly scars of survival.  Where and when do we allow ourselves to surface?  Who can we trust with the real us?

A few years ago, my best friend (who just happened to be my husband’s sister) died of pancreatic cancer.  Although I knew her for 25 years, it was the last few months of her life, that I REALLY got to know her.  Know why?  Because we finally took off our masks and exposed the naturalness of whom we were.  We shared emotions, normally bottled up and kept out of sight because they weren’t pretty or were too hard to deal with.  We laughed, we cried, we acted goofy (not too hard for me and a story for another time), basically we shared our hearts and we finally said I love you, something that was always assumed but never spoken.  In the end, we both realized how much we had missed out on.  

At one point later in her illness, she sent me a card (we were both card fiends).  On the front of the card there was a table and two non matching chairs.  The table had flowers on it as well as two coffee mugs.  Inside the blank card, she wrote, let’s find a place like this or create one of our own and meet there regularly!  She passed away before we ever did this.  I have two rocking chairs out on my deck and sometimes in the morning, when it is nice out, I grab my morning coffee and go out and sit and savor the stillness of the morning.  I think about God, and life and her.  I no longer feel the need to try to be perfect.  I’ve thrown away my mask.  I just want to be and I want others to know, that it is OK for them just to “be” as well.  Try it.  Grab a friend and your coffee, don't wait.  You will be glad you did!

Looking up! ~ Barb