Truth is imperative

Truth is imperative, but even beyond just truth, it's graceful honesty that is imperative for any and all relationships to have any ground to be real. To say, "yes," when you mean, "no," is a futile effort to cover up who you really are, and that's a losing card.

It's too easy in today's world to slip behind masks and make up and dogma. We end up becoming afraid to show who we really are, and then shame is created, we become ashamed of who we are. And there is likely no more painful human state than to feel ashamed of being who you really are.

Relationships, whether friendship, lover, partner or another type, are not meant to withstand losing cards like that. They are built on the foundation of the ability to show who you really are, and to see who your counterpart really is. That is intimacy. "Intimate" comes from the latin meaning to make known.

Grace deflects criticism and unkindness and it accepts truth and reflects it back.
Combine truth with grace and there is no reason to ever feel shame or hide who you are from the people around you. Those who like you will love you because they get to see the truth of who you are, and those who don't will not leave angry, they'll just leave.

Blessings.
- Darshan

© 2009 Darshan F Jessop