Being Our Authentic Selves
This is a recovered post from a botched website transfer in 2014. It was originally published 08/31/2013.
Going "widely public" with my abilities smacks of a coming out.
- Coming out of the closet.
- Coming out of the darkness.
- Coming out from behind a mask.
Back in the long-ago day, according to the hundreds of historical romances I've read, coming-out parties for young women of a certain age were not just the fashion, but the necessity.It brought those carefully-coached young women into the public eye to be shown off for purposes of forging a marriage with the most eligible bachelor and family possible.For me, it's much easier to come out to the general public, most of whom don't know me. After that, it isn't too hard to come out to my friends, who are, in general, equal parts curious and excited. Coming out to my family... That's another thing entirely.I'm a little more bold on Facebook, upon which I'm connected with the bulk of my close-knit family. I admit, though, that it's because it feels safer, somehow, in that cyber community. It's cyber me, not in-person me.With my family, for the most part, I'm being inauthentic based on my perceived notion that they'll be uncomfortable with my abilities. That they won't get it. That they won't get me.
It's imperative we be our authentic self. To do otherwise is to deny our very essence.
It starts with self-acceptance. We must accept what we can do; embrace it, be it. When we do, we exude a confidence that helps others to accept us, too.If they don't?There will be those who won't accept us, just as there will be those who won't understand the perfection that is dark chocolate. (Perish the thought!) It would be nice if they did, and yet it's unrealistic to expect it will be so.What's most important is that we be our authentic self for ourselves.
