As painful, difficult, and disturbing as candor can be, I like it. Experience reminds me of candor’s power to take people, including myself, to places I never imagined! I am not suggesting the journey between the present and candor’s destination will be easy. In anything, it will be the opposite! I am suggesting that candor is a tool and vehicle that creates opportunity for learning, dialogue, and even collaboration.
Recent experiences remind me how difficult the process is. As much as I want candor, the reflection of my choices and decisions tells a different tale. In addition to what is on my side of the isle, there is the reality of less that truth in the conversations with others around me. To this, I can only whisper a prayer; “Deliver me from the liars, God! They smile so sweetly but lie through their teeth.” (Psalm 120.2)
The heart of my challenge is within, not without.
As a reminder to myself, the truths I work to carry with me include;
Doing the right thing is always the best thing you can do. As uncertain as it is, in the absence of anything better, do what is right. Start with compassion and empathy. Wrap it in love and harmony. Muster all the courage you can find and take a step.
Live in the present. The past is for lessons, the future is for amazing possibilities. Everything pivots in the moment that is at hand. Gift others with one’s full attention. Put some space between one’s self and fear, uncertainty, and doubts. Let the present unfold with a desire to experience everything that it offers.
Gift others with the same sense of belonging, acceptance, and understanding our souls thirst for. Everyone is in battle with an inner demon, pain that is unknown to others, and struggle. Each may appear to be small or inconsequential in the eyes of the observer; inevitably they are epic to those in battle.
Above all, trust in the light at the end of the tunnel. The darkness never lasts as long as one imagines.
