“Yet in always trying to appear happy, perfect, even inspiring and certainly enviable, we often neglect the very parts of ourselves that bring us true happiness, joy, connection, love, and pleasure. We become afraid of our true selves, of expressing who we really are, with all our flaws and imperfections. We begin to cover ourselves up, to clothe ourselves in words and images that mask the emotions and even the joys that define our hearts and minds and souls because they seem to intimate, and this intimacy seems inappropriate.” The Happiness Effect, Donna Freitas

I have pain. I have sadness. I have a quick temper, a mouth that often gets me in trouble, and a tendency to talk to much or withdraw completely. To say the wrong thing, or to say it poorly. I can be too sarcastic, too lost to see a way out, and too stuck on justice. But I love a dirty joke, give great practical advice, and will hold you while you cry.

None of us needs to pretend. Especially not now. The world is burning, might as well stop hiding from ourselves.