A grown woman expressed her concern with me: “We have been spending time getting to know her over the past year and letting her get to know us. Please understand when she is around, we are not ourselves, we are on our best behavior. I do not think she realizes who we really are.”

I must admit that someone’s honest confession to this lack of authenticity was a little shocking. In my world I place authenticity at the very top of my living experience and if I ever realized a lack of authenticity in my behavior, I would be admitting it and immediately following it with a profound and honest apology.

I wasn’t sure how to respond to someone who valued authenticity so little. It was as if speaking to a child who doesn’t understand honesty. So I asked, “I agree. If you aren’t yourself when she is around then she doesn’t really know you and I wonder who she has been getting to know over the past year?”

If we keep playing these games others will never know who we really are and we will never know if we are truly loved.

Please BE yourself – regardless of who you are around.

This way you give others a chance to know the real ‘YOU’, and who knows, perhaps they will love you anyway.

🙂