Quote from: Laurie on February 01, 2018, 09:47:39 PM
I am nothing special. I'm not a particularly smart person. I don't have words of wisdom. Okay, I was a good computer repairman when I was working. Pretty good but that was all. I said all I do is try to find something in the posts I read that I can relate to and I talk about how I can relate to it. I talk about myself. By doing so I make a connection with the person that wrote it and that lets them know that they are not alone.
A lot of people base things like that on what they do. To try and quantify what makes them worth something in someone else's eyes. It's human nature. And in doing that, we almost always come away feeling like we're not good enough. There are always people who do things better, or who have done or said things that, to us, are way more deserving.
But it isn't about that. It's not what you do which makes you special. It's who you are. It's who you are inside. Is it honesty? Maybe. I guess that's a part of it. For me what makes someone special is their vulnerability. Which may seem like a very odd thing to say. But as people we hide a lot behind a facade of machismo, or stoicism, or silence. What we show to the world is only a portion of who we are as a person. Not just what we say, but what we don't say. Not just how we act, but how we don't act.
I don't think it's as much honesty as it is not being afraid to feel vulnerable. To not wall everything off which makes you scared, or hurt, or feel like you could use someone just to hold your hand and tell you it's going to be okay. A lot of people will say it's a sign of weakness to reach out for help with something but it isn't. It's the opposite. It's a sign of strength. It's a sign of knowing that you can't do everything by yourself. Of knowing that most people are dark and light. I think what makes people special is their capacity to feel. To experience emotions. Be those positive, negative, or somewhere in between.
And that's what I get from you, Laurie. And so many others here. It's not so much coming out of a shell as it is having the numbness wear off from a life. Waking up for the first time, I suppose. Allowing the sentience to actually be, instead of smothering it in a concrete tomb of denial and fear. It's that spark inside everyone which makes them special. And when you allow others to see that... that's why we care about you.
*hugs*
