August 16

COURAGE MONTH: DAY 16: “People who lack the clarity, courage, or determination to follow their own dreams will often find ways to discourage yours. Live your truth and don’t EVER stop!” ― Steve Maraboli

Most of my life, people have cautioned me about things I tell them. Either things I have done or want to do, dreams or ideas I have, all kinds of things.

Most people think I am too radical, too verbal, too open, too trusting, too something. I have let this stop me from time to time. Often I have been who I am. I am very spontaneous and have done some really crazy (they thought) things. I am able to verbalize things that shock and appall people, things that are outside the “acceptable” conversation topics. I am bored easily with people who have tight reins on their emotions or opinions and ideas.

Therefore, I shock and terrify those who have judgments about “appropriate” topics and language. I love to step outside these boundaries, because I find them restraining and stupid. They are ways to judge and demean and punish and control others to be who we want them to be for our own comfort. I want to always make others somewhat uncomfortable by speaking about things I believe truly matter, but are not deemed “safe” or “appropriate” by those whose comfort is deemed more important than the truth.

I do not do these things strictly for effect, but I do them. I want to have the challenging conversations that we like to sweep under the rug. I have always been this way and have seen that it allows those who need permission to speak about these things the space where it is okay.

If we don’t speak about the deeper issues in life, we are missing the damned point, as I see it. I don’t want to hear your “safe” stories. I want to hear the deepest and darkest things you have never spoken about. It tells me a great deal more than the BS you can spout because it covers up your inner being. I don’t want to know the outside shit. It matters not one iota to me.

Tell me who you really, really are. I will sit with that. Can you? I have no time for the niceties of life. They bore the hell out of me. I know darkness; and, therefore, I know the brightest light there is. How about you? You cannot have one without the other. And if you are keeping one of them secret, you have no idea what the other side is.