Full transparency? I don’t know where I’m going with any of this.
What I do know is that I am no longer capable of or interested in fake, forced pleasantries in the midst of hard things.
Everyone is struggling. Why are we pretending we don’t? Because we’ve seen how people react to the struggles of strangers. The gossip. Judgment. Pity. Righteousness. And I’ve been just as guilty of it. Misery loves company, right??…as long as our own misery doesn’t get exposed. Because our fear isn’t really that we’ll be exposed, it’s that we’ll be abandoned.
But I’m tired of it. I’m tired of not having the conversations. I’m tired of the expectation for people to hide the real, raw, shameful, confusing parts of themselves or their lives. Because guess what? We’re all human. Nothing is black and white. And if I’m going to be loved, I want to be loved for all of it, not just the parts that feel “acceptable”.
We’ll still talk about the mundane, every day things, but I want to burn the walls down and start talking about the real things, too. Money. Sex. Betrayal. Mental health. Alcoholism. Porn addiction. Abuse. Religion. Because it’s all everyday stuff.
The dark things grow in the shadows. If we want to heal the hurt, we have to shed light on it. We have to start being real. Vulnerable. Authentic. We have to love like Jesus. Somebody has to take the first step, so let it start with me.