If You've Ever Felt Like You're Pretending

OK it's Thursday, not Wednesday. Shoot. However, I hope this makes up for the tardiness. This is by a writer I encountered recently and it is one of the most beautiful, articulate group of sentences I've read in a while. If you've ever felt like you're posturing or protecting, here's why not to:

We waste so much energy trying to cover up who we are, when beneath every attitude is the want to be loved, and beneath every anger is a wound to be healed, and beneath every sadness is a fear that there will not be enough time.

When we hesitate in being direct, we unknowingly slip something on, some added layer of protection that keeps us from feeling the world, and often that thin covering is the beginning of a loneliness which, if not put down, diminishes our chances for joy. It's like wearing gloves every time we touch something, and then, forgetting that we chose to put them on, we complain that nothing feels quite real.

In this way, our challenge each day is not to get dressed to face the world, but to unglove ourselves so that the doorknob feels cold, and the car handle feels wet, and the kiss goodbye feels like the lips of another being soft and unrepeatable.

As you breathe, let each breath undress your being--of attitude, of mood, of history.

---Mark Nepo

photos by my dad of a sunset last week in Taos. Nature can't do this if it's trying to not be what it is....