When do you pull it off?

[Naleena]

Haa haa, get your mind out the gutter...lol Most of you have heard that we all wear "masks" and hide our true selves. It's a way of protecting ourselves. While I try to be as open and myself as possible, I know that not many people will have the opportunity to know the real me. I think we all want someone we can trust to know the real us- the person without the mask. The person who has scars of being hurt, rejected, unaccepted and ridiculed. The face of anger, doubt, pain, failure, strangeness, shame, suffering, and all those things we feel we have to hide from people. We all need someone worthy of sharing our deepest secrets with.
Nothing feels so good as to share OUR stories. The stories that say once upon a time, I was. Witness me in this moment. Accept me in this moment. Keep me safe, in this moment. When someone takes off thier mask, you see stories. You see the past, you see the present, and if your really caring, you can almost see the future

Who can you trust with your stories? Do you share them openly or only with a select few? When do you take off your mask? Or is it possible to gradually take it off revealing only small portions of the real you? Who do you feel safe with? You don't have to post your answers but, do think about it

Here is a song for you to listen to while you do May you all have someone who you can be your authentic, true selves with. May you be loved and accepted for who you are. May you find that person(s) that can look at your scars, not as hideous or ugly, but as beautiful and unique part of you that perhaps only a few get the honour to see. ((((((((((((((((((Everyone))))))))))))))))))))

[youtube]4SIX-Qp6v4k[/youtube]

The one below really speaks to me. The mask is a surgical mask. It not only protects the wearer but, it protects those who they come in contact with. How many people fear hurting others if they take off thier masks? Afraid some poisen might infect those they love?

I like the one below, too. How many of us take off our "masks" to look in the mirror of self refelction? Do we leave them on and tell ourselves that wjhat we present to the world is true? That there is not another part of us that hides? Or perhaps some of us put on the most horrible masks we can create and never see our true selves.

Thanks for reading this
EDIT: Had to fix song link...lol

 

[Lonesome Crow]

Why Nalee...
Havn't you made passionate love with a soulmate before ?
You're bare ass nakes as two souls become one.
You let go in the presence of god.
You don't pull out !!! It'll get messy.lmao

Seriously though. I've only met of couple of people in my life that I was willing to bare all to.
The trust took time. She reveal her deepest ,darkest secrets to me. It was in that moment that
I thought she was most beautiful. She touched my being at the core.
She was beautiful on the inside as she was on the oustside.
I love her so much....

As for myself , it was like peeling layers of onions.lol
You know what happens when you peel onions ????......you weep.lol
You know what you get when you get to the center off the onion ?....nothing.
You might know or not...I stopped drinking and using at a very young age.
I worked the 12 steps program over and over again.
I was a learning and growning process..
I had to do a moral inventory of my life....the good , the bad and ugly. My assets and liabilities.

It was like opening up a can of worms.lol All the crap I burries deep inside of me.
I tried to numb myself mentally and emotionally....but it stopped working.lol
The drugs and alcohol abuse were just symtoms of my deeper problems.
It may differ form indiviual to indiviual..
( the style we choose to cover up the pain or the mask)

I had to find a peson whom i can share that with (sponsor). Someone i can trust.
Someone that's been there and done that before....beuase I judge myself harsh.lol
Someone that can pull me out as I look into the eyes of a stranger (me).lol
someone that had found a way out.
Unconditional love.

The porcess is that..if i was to stay stopped or stay clean and sober.
I had to be honest with myself and learn to accept myself....all of me.
It starts there...with me. I could no longer lie to myself.
Me putting on a front to everyone else is but an extension of that.
I could longer pretend I was okay....when i wasn't okay.

Some people term it as living under you own skin.
Without drugs or alcohol to dialute myself I had to face the music.
Something about I'm a bit fragile...and I needed to love and take
care of myself instead of hating myself.
Stay sober is pain in ass sometimes....I feel everything.
And I'm more aware of my own BS...lmao

oh yeah...you know what happens when you open up a can
of worms and shine sunlight on it ??....The worms dries up and died.lol

 

[Lonesome Crow]

Story of my freaken life....

[youtube]HlPiLkO004I[/youtube]

 

[Naleena]

(((((((((((Lonesome Crow))))))))))))))))))))
Thanks for sharing your wisdom and life experience with us. I know I really enjoyed getting to know this about you. You have a lot of wisdom So is it your time to become the supporter?

 

[Unacceptance]

I always wear my mask, in fact I have a ski mask on right now.

Can't have folk identifying me.

 

[Steel]

We wear masks, and under each mask is another mask (albeit a slightly smaller one). I'm an open person, but yes, I have masks. Perhaps even the openness is a mask?

Personally, if I choose to remove a mask and show someone another side of me, then I do so because I have trust in that person. Trust that they will not judge me for showing this hidden facet of myself, and trust that they can deal with the information. It's not a trust I divulge lightly, there are sides of me very few people have seen.

If someone lets me peek beneath one of their masks, I always feel priveleged.

I love the symbolism and imagery of masks, probably ever since Motley Crue's Theatre of Pain album lol