Vulnerable

Vulnerable: capable of being wounded or hurt. We've all felt this way from time to time. Sometimes more often than others, depending on what's going on in our lives.

One of the hardest things we can do is to share with someone the very things that are at the heart of us. Because after we've shared, we feel very vulnerable. But yet, sharing is the one thing we seem to need to do more often than not. For me personally, sharing things that leave me feeling vulnerable doesn't come easy. Recently, a good friend and I were sharing, and since neither of us is the type who share stuff often, I was touched, moved, by the willingness to open up. And I have to say that sharing things with me from the heart is like a vote of confidence in who I am, and the depth of the relationship between us. And that's a true sign of friendship; something I value very highly in this world.

And it got me to thinking: have we closed ourselves off so much so that we have stopped sharing the things that would draw us closer? Take a look at love, how it comes and goes these days -- marriages that don't last, people who fall in and out of love over and over again, or think the grass is greener over there. Most don't bother to stick it out through the bad times any more. But I ask you this: Would we be more willing to stick with it, if we learned to share and let ourselves be a little more vulnerable in the relationships that are important to us? Would we get back to more honest, basic living if we quit trying to dodge around those things?

Its a scary thing to expose ourselves to something new, different, challenging. If we were guaranteed that it wouldn't hurt us, we'd have no problem! But there are no guarantees in life. And some things are going to hurt us. If we live inside a bubble avoiding the hurts, we might miss the joys headed our way! I know I've been trying to be better at taking a few more risks when it comes to matters of the heart; to not shy away from expressing what I feel.

As Maya Angelou has said:

I've learned that people will forget what you said,
people will forget what you did,
but people will never forget how you made them feel.

HUGS to everyone!