I M Perfect lady

Below is today's reading by Mark Nepo from his book "The book of Awakening"

The sun doesn't stop shining because people are blind. 

 It is a hard challenge to stay true to ourselves in the face of indifference. Rejection and opposition are painful, but being treated as if you don't exist is quietly devastating. This soft puncture is particularly human. Eagles soar and glide for hours in canyon air, and the fact that no one knows does not lessen their ability to fly. But for us there is a constant elusive heroism in being who we are, especially when we are misunderstood, judged, or ignored. Somehow our need for love gives tremendous power to the opinions of others, and so, we are required to guard against turning our lives over to the expectations of others.

A great example of hearing one's deeper self is the Spanish painter Goya. Writing about Goya, Andre Malraux tells us that after going deaf in 1792, the painter understood that “to allow his genius to become apparent to himself it was necessary that he should dare to give up aiming to please.” It is both touching and instructive that Goya couldn't fully realize his God-given gifts until he went deaf to the demands of those around him.  Mark Nepo

What I have realized that we are not taught to stay true to your self.  We are taught to keep our words to ourselves if they are not 'kind'…and to honor thy mother and thy father, no matter what.  

Staying true to your self in an abusive home is very dangerous, it could lead to more punishment and further neglect and abuse.  It is better to bury your true feelings and expressions and begin living to stay true to what they want.

How many even know what staying true to you means?  If the only you you have ever known is the one who looks outward in making choices…trying not to disappoint or lose love by the choices they make.

What if you made choices and were blind to what others thought or said? What if you could move freely believing that they are blind to your choices?  Would they still be the choices you make today?

In the past, I made no choice or very little choices that would negatively affect another's happiness.  I only moved in ways that didn't ripple lives.

I believe that the biggest indication of how far off the mark I was from my true self was by the vast changes that happened when I began living my life from the inside out.

When I became blind and deaf to the outside and turned my full attention to staying true to me.

I just listened to Joseph Campbell's book, "The Hero with a Thousand Faces" and in it he says that all will be called to the Hero's Journey, but few will answer the call.

He speaks about how when we fail to answer the call of staying true to ourselves, we will only create more negative.  I believe this.

I had a lifetime of negative upon negative outcomes based upon my shying away from my true self.

This gives me great peace to know…that a hero's journey is one that creates positive.  All the negative course corrections that I had to make in order to stay true to me will be completely worth it if I am no longer creating negative karma…or a negative history and legacy.

Imagine, we can change the world's negative percentage one person at a time…all we have to do is stay true…no longer indifferent to your own feelings.