“The most exhausting thing in life, I have discovered, is being insincere. That is why so much of social life is exhausting; one is wearing a mask. I have shed my mask.” Anne Morrow Lindbergh in Gift From the Sea.
I tweeted that quote a few months ago and people are still telling me how it touched them. One gal at church told me she’d had to stay home from church one week because she was too exhausted to put on her Sunday morning mask.
I’m in a Beth Moore Bible study right now and she made the following points.
We should be:
- Authentic with all
- Transparent with some
- Intimate with few
I’ve been mulling over both observations in the last week and I’ve come to a few conclusions.
Authenticity takes practice. Transparency is hard. Intimacy is risky. But they all flow from taking off the mask.
Some of us have worn the mask so long, we’ve forgotten who we are without it.
In the last few years I’ve become more aware of some of my masks and am making an effort to drop them.
I’m still working but I think I’m making progress.
What about you? Do you think we wear masks?
Writer of Sweet Small Town Stories of Love and Family 