self-discovery

From horoscopes and the Enneagram to the social archetypes of the high school cafeteria, we are desperate for ways to make sense of who we are in relation to the world. It’s troubling that the answer would not be immediately clear to us. But there are parts of us we’ve managed to hide even from ourselves.

Simone Weil said, “Man only escapes from the laws of this world in lightning flashes. Instants when everything stands still, instants of contemplation, of pure intuition, of mental void, of acceptance of the moral void. It is through such instants that he is capable of the supernatural.” I don’t yet know about the word only, but I think there is a

Don’t forget this: Nothing is truly ever ordinary. I’m telling you, Protect the truest things about you and it will become easier to hear the truth everyplace else.

Any love we receive while wearing the mask only affirms the belief that unmasked, we are indeed unlovable. Our shame is not resolved. It expands. Any affirmation we receive as mirages only keeps our true selves lurking in empty corridors, longing for touch. Illusions of self do not merely make for lonely souls; they make for hated ones.