Fragile
“We’re all fragile inside, even the strongest among us, and our worry about that confines us. Nobody does it to us. We lock ourselves away inside cages of comfort. The bars of our cages are velvet lined, padded and soft, yet strong as iron to makes us feel safe from the risks that accompany authentic expression. Meanwhile life passes you by, while part of your authentic self remains hidden underneath, unfulfilled and unexpressed.” – Dean Lincoln Hyers
This is taken from the prologue of a book that I just bought. Everyone has put themselves into a cage that protects them, because everyone has experienced being misunderstood, laughed at, rejection & failure. We may project our strengths to the world, but we have hidden back what we feel sensitive and fragile about in our cage of protection.
There comes into our lives these moments, when our passion cries out for expression, when we have the opportunity to stand up for what we want, how we want our world to be, to be the hero of the moment. We look through the bars of protection that we ourselves have created and we wonder “what if?”
The truth is that everyone is afraid; that everyone has a cage where they have hidden their fragile secrets. When you are brave enough to own your moment, acknowledge the fear and do it anyway, you are giving everyone else a gift that says, “see the real me”. Your authenticity is a mixture of strength and vulnerability, it is the whole you, not just the strength part of you that you normally project, but all of you.
What if instead of protecting our reputation, we created a new one? What if instead of holding back we took a step forward and shared the passion hidden inside?
