Be YOU

Have you ever tried to be someone you aren't, can't be, and already know in your heart you don't ever want to be?  I think we all have at one time or another and it felt like a shoe that was the wrong size.  It rubbed, chafed, or flopped, and while it might fit great for somebody else, that somebody just didn't happen to be you.  And then there was the color...it was ok...sort of...but again, just not for you.  So, you kept hunting.

Same sort of thing in real life.  Trying to be someone you aren't is miserable.  Day after day it's simply exhausting.  It makes you feel irritable, angry, and spills over into every aspect of your life even when you don't realize it.  It's like that ill fitting shoe...it's rubbing a blister on your heel and maybe more than one.

It takes lots of courage to choose the life you want, and then live it.  Especially when it flies in the face of a family system that doesn't support diversity of belief-- any belief.  Some family systems tell you there's exactly ONE WAY (their way) to do everything and everything else is WRONG.  Period.  It's black and white thinking without any room for gray.  Family systems like this are limiting, soul crushing, and hard to extricate yourself from.  This is text book co-dependency and it's ruined more lives than you can count.

The courage it takes to do your life your way, is huge.  Walking your walk, doing life your way and accepting the fact that others don't appreciate your walk or even like it (or you) for doing it, is just fine.  That's their stuff.  Do it anyway. Sure, you'll get flak.  You will be judged and criticized.  Do it anyway.  Be who you are.  Walk your walk.  There's only one person God created to be you, and it's YOU. 

You'll find people who love and respect you-- for you.  You will.  They will honor your thoughts, feelings, and beliefs, like you'll honor theirs.  You will know a peace you never knew existed.  You will feel a sense of freedom that will make you smile and want to skip outside on the driveway.  Do that, too.  Skipping is good.  I highly recommend it.

But most of all, be you.  Find the shoes that fit YOU, and wear 'um.