How Little We Really Know
of one another and what others really think
Even those we think we know so well.
Secrets. Skeletons in the Closet.
Whether someone tells you what they really think or not, saying something completely different to your face.
I have been thinking about the line from a Thomas King book which says, “Be careful with the stories that you tell” because you never know what others really think about you.
Perhaps he is right that “not everyone earns the right to hear your stories” and you can certainly open yourself to more criticism and judgment, by others who know some of your stories, and then fill in the rest with their own ideas and filling in the information that confirms their theories.
This is where I guess it becomes most important then, who you make yourself to be, and the relationship that you grow to have with yourself, your own integrity, and your relationship you hold with God.
Perhaps one of the hardest things in life is to realize that cannot always trust another’s intentions and their word.
When sometimes you learn later they think opposite of things told to your face.
I am too trusting and sometimes this has served me at points in life, very well, to lead to some truly amazing community members and friendships.
And at other times, this part of me has really blown me away and made me stagger backwards, crumbling.
There are many lessons in life that we sometimes keep learning, again and again; this seems to be one of them for me.
Protect your hearts. Especially those of us with the “marshmallow ones,” as a cohort friend in my PhD program once told me.
“You can only meet someone as far as they have met themselves.”