I’ve been thinking about vulnerability today. The rawest of states.
This is where we feel—truly feel.
Vulnerability are those moments where you pour your heart out, or end up on your knees—head in hands, sobbing uncontrollably. It’s the moment of saying I love you to someone who merely smiles and touches your hand; with no return in sentiment. Or the conversation between friends where honesty flows and awkward moments ignite. It’s the perfectly, imperfect, uncomfortable space buried so deep in our core that we refuse to expose it.
Vulnerability is talking about—or in my case, writing stories about topics such as grief, loss, love, pain, deceit, and fear. Who wants to read these melancholic tales? Who wants to feel?
We prefer to numb ourselves by not engaging, but rather being intoxicated by the frivolity, distracted by the fluff, consumed by the busy. There is comfort in not infiltrating our subconscious with nanoseconds of authenticity. Yet, vulnerability is where connections flourish. It’s the realization that you are not alone in living through your fourth miscarriage. It’s the appreciation that your baby’s crib death or your child’s unexpected suicide is felt by so many others. It’s knowing that the feelings of want, need and desire that envelop you, also embrace the hearts of many.
It’s also acknowledging that you are not the only person sitting on your living room floor choosing between paying your mounting bills, or feeding your children. It’s knowing that when in the middle of the night, you must run out of your house in nothing but bare feet, afraid that with this assault your spouse may finally beat the life out of you; you are not alone. It’s believing that, it’s okay to come apart at the seams in a supermarket as your child screams, yells, swears or calls you unspeakable names.
These are the moments that I choose to write about. These are the stories I choose to tell. For, these are the stories that speak to my heart. They resonate with my humanity. These stories, these moments of vulnerability are indisputably potent, courageous and palpable. These stories offer the fleeting moments of connection that lead us to believe that on some existential level we are all one.
Vulnerability is not about winning or losing; its about having the courage to show up and be seen when we have no control over the outcome.
Vulnerability is not weakness, it’s our greatest measure of courage.”
~Brene Brown
Vulnerability is about truth. Our truth. A truth buried deep inside our souls, shrouded in secrecy, concealed by a cloak of invisibility, screaming to be seen and heard.
Break down your walls, shed your armor, expose yourself, freedom awaits.
