H A L L O W E E N I S T O D A Y. . .
or is I T?
Do you remember?
When was the last time you actually went HALLOWEENING?
When was the first time you actually went Trick or Treating?
What was your favorite Halloween outfit?
Was it reflective on WHO YOU WANTED TO BE?
Superman?
Princess?
Monster?
Lawyer?
Nurse?
Doctor?
Mad Scientist?
Astronaut?
Nun?
Priest?
If there were a Halloween party tonight and you were told to dress
WHO YOU WANTED TO BE,
WOULD YOU DRESS UP IN THE FASHION OF WHO YOU ARE NOW. . .
Or Would you Dress as Someone Else?
It’s not a Holy day,
It’s not an Anniversary,
It’s not a Birthday,
It’s not a Holiday,
It is Halloween–the only day–we actually celebrate
EVERY DAY OF THE YEAR, isn’t it?
What day of the year,
or even what part of the day
WOULD NOT BE HALLOWEEN?
It’s actually an ancient Celtic holiday
on which people believed they needed masks
to protect themselves from bad spirits that roamed the earth
on Hallows Eve
. . .but we’re still wearing masks–lots of them,
aren’t we. . .
Psychologists tell us that one of the reasons
we wear MASKS
is because of the
I M P O S T E R S Y N D R O M E:
THE FEAR THAT WORLD IS GOING TO FIND US OUT. . .
One of our greatest fears is
that if we SHOW
our true selves,
the world will SHOUT:
“OH, IT’S JUST YOU!”
Oscar Wilde once said,
“BE YOURSELF; EVERYONE ELSE IS TAKEN”
Well, Susan Sparks, in Psychology Today tells us there’s at least
T H R E E R E A S O N S
for us to take of our MASKS:
- So we can live LIFE our full potential. . .We are not 1 in a million, YOU are just one singular, magnificent, most awesome an INDIVIDUAL
- Just for RELIEF. . .It’s exhausting taking on/off/on/off/on/off/on/off all of these Masks, plus you forget WHO YOU really are.
- Just for HEALING. . .Wearing Masks carves out your truest SELF; we weren’t Born with Masks; WE put them on, so WE can take them off;
E. E. Cummings wrote:
“The greatest battle we face as human being is the battle to protect our trues selves from the self the world wants us to become.”
Are you authentic?
The REAL YOU?
DO YOU SHOW UP AS YOU 24/7, 364 days a year or are you truly more of a
HALLOWEEN PERSON?
H E Y. . .
It’s November 1
Halloween was yesterday. . .
Think about taking your Masks off. . .
Most wouldn’t be shocked if when
we took off all of our masks. . .
there would still be more?
Seriously have you ever seen/viewed/spied your bare, truest self?
Have Y O U ever seen Y O U ?
When T H E Y
show up on YOUR front porch,
knocking on YOUR door,
yelling into YOUR ears:
TRICK or TREAT–
Give them NEITHER. . .
Give them what they’ll never expect,
what they never saw coming,
what NO ONE,
not even you,
has ever truly seen:
G I V E T H E M Y O U!
Maybe,
maybe the best Halloween of all. . .
is actually no Halloween at all!
Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm of the DAY:
Maybe the Best Mask of all
on Halloween
is the one that’s been taken off
and l o s t. . .
Riddle me that,
B a t m a n. . .
So, yeah, you are right on. Some days, not including Halloween, I would like to be someone else…with musical talent, with absolute confidence, someone with all the answers. Well, we know that is not happening. So everyday, I just pray that I am enough. Enough for whoever I encounter that day. Maybe even more than enough. Then I would be who God created me to be.
Keep the inspirations coming. It’s good to have a positive voice such as yours, to listen to. Be good out there.
Always, Bonnie
Pssssst: WHEN YOU PRAY TO BE E-N-O-U-G-H…DOES THE PRAYER EVER NOT GET ANSWERED…THANKS, AS ALWAYS, FOR BEING AN INSPIRATION, MS BONNIE!
Chuck…This is awesome. It is amazing to think about how many different masks we put on and off every day. I have certainly done that in my lifetime, but I am really trying to be “REAL”, open and honest. (Actually, recently I questioned if I needed to change who I was because of a paragraph that I read in my Bible study. It was talking about one of the women of the Bible who was gentle and quiet in Spirit and how she was very precious in the sight of God. This paragraph made me think of my daughter because she is that quiet, reserved type person.) I literally wrote a note to myself saying-“Do I need to change who I am?” It made me think that maybe my personality of being loud and “out there” and in the eyes of others sometimes obnoxious wasn’t what God wanted me to be. However, that has been me for a very long time. Still thinking…
My daughter and I are very different people, but what I see in her is that she is the “real deal”. She does what makes her feel comfortable and doesn’t try to change for people or circumstances. As a mom, this makes me very proud because I have seen her be true to herself although I didn’t always understand it.
It is hard to see in yourself changes and improvements that you need to make, but you can see in other people where they are either “thriving” or trying to just fit in with the crowd. Thanks for your neat post…Thought provoking!
Always appreciate your wise, honest insights. Here’s to being MORE MASK-FREE