Do not hide anything from yourself.

There are things we’ve done, or had done to us, which we regret or bring us pain, but, these things may actually be treasure to us, defining us and declaring our way.

I don’t think I’d be doing the things I’m exploring and developing today if I hadn’t sought to understand and embrace the rejections I had.

If we do the hard thing we come to have an advantage:

‘But our worldview, by its nature, keeps us from seeing the world as it is.  A lifetime spent noticing begins to turn into the ability to see what others can’t.’*

Here’s what can begin to happen when you don’t hide anything from yourself: you trust yourself more – your skills and decisions; you become more innovative and creative as a result; it changes the way you see and treat others; it means you’re more open to what others have to share with you; and it will mean others will want to relate and work with you.

‘Loss always has much to teach us; its voice whispers that the shelter just lost was too small for our new souls.  But it is hard to belong generously to the rhythm of loss.  The beauty of loss is the room it makes for something new.’

(*From Seth Godin’s The Icarus Deception.)
(**From John O’Donohue’s Eternal Echoes.)