What do you see when you look in the mirror? Not the you that you morph into when people are around, but the you inside. The real you that hides just behind your eyes. Do you look that deep? Can you?
Sure, you can look others in the eyes, but can you look squarely into your own? No flinching, no holding back, staring into the the truth of who you really are.
The truth of who we were, who we are, and who we are becoming, can be overwhelming. This introspection can be especially hard for those that refuse to acknowledge the choices, actions, life events, and decisions that led them to become their current version. You have to acknowledge the good and the bad because it's the combination of the two that influenced you.
You don't have to dwell on it, but you cannot pretend it never happened. To do so, is the equivalent of sticking your head in the sand and living a lie.
I can look deep in my eyes and meet the gaze of the one person who judges me more harshly than anyone else ever could. Myself.
Do I have regrets? No, I have lessons learned. I have experiences that I learned from, good memories, bad choices, unhappy memories, a plethora of things that feed my desire to live more, learn more, and love more. To be myself more.
There are things that confirm my thoughts, ideas and beliefs, especially about who and what I will allow in my life.
There are people and things that will be gone soon, and I'm glad of that. I do not need or want them in my future. While I will not be sorry to see them go, I will use my experience with them to continue my journey of learning. I won't write it out as if it never existed, I'll just move happily on and let it take it's place in the dusty files of the past
You can, and should, learn something from every day that you live. Whether it's positive or negative, you can glean something from the experience and become a better person.
