30 November, 2008

A Window into Someone's Soul

There are so many windows in the world--big arched bevelled glass majestic windows, regular four pane windows, windows that swing out, stained glass windows and peep holes. I think people are like that. There are parts of our lives that we share with everyone--those big huge windows; everyone's welcome to see those parts of our lives, those feelings, those thoughts. In fact we almost announce them to anyone who will listen. But we also have the other windows--windows that seem foggy and we only share part of what we think. We may let some people see and some just get a glimpse. And then there are the peep holes, we let someone just see a little. The problem with peep holes is they can distort the view. Look through a peep hole in a door. You can't see the whole room and the perception of it's size or depth is distorted. You may think you see something that's not there or you may not see something that is there. Peep holes don't really show us anything. Sometimes we turn our peep holes into bigger windows and select who we will let see. This is very scary--letting someone see the real deal. If I just let you peep into my kitchen you won't see that I haven't cleaned the floor but if I create a window you know. When we let someone peep into our deepest feelings, they really don't know how deeply they go. If I let you see everything you may not like me anymore, you may reject me, you may change your opinion of me. Or worse yet, you may not believe me. You may not understand that I turned that peep hole into a big window and I let you see this is how I really feel down to my core. And if you laugh at me, if you shrug me off, if you assume it's still a peep hole and not my deepest fear, then I'm going to close the window and a bit of me dies. And I'm going to cover the peep hole and hide behind the wall.

We don't know when people share whether it's a peep hole or the whole window-how do we respond to that?

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