Some of my most courageous moments have been where I have had to say… ‘It is not all as it seems on the outside, come in and have a look’
Invite people inside!
The house that is your life….. in the midst of the worst of times I was looking at somebody’s else’s life and saying how good it looked from over here…there house (life) looked great! And the Universe whispered, ‘Well, maybe it is as grand, and as pretty and as big and bright as it looks from the outside and if so, then let’s be happy for them’, but then the Universe also reminded me that behind every good looking front door and tidy front yard and impressive driveway and double garage there is a story….
And it got me thinking. Like a house we can make our lives look so good from the front. We can build a profile on social media, have our Bio written by a professional and we can make our lives and ourselves look pretty amazing, just like we can the front of a home. We can paint it, tidy the front and even put some cladding on if we really want to cover some stuff up. So, that as people are driving by in our lives and sitting out the front, they look at our ‘house’ (life) and they stop and admire it and maybe we even wave from the one of the windows and they say, WOW, look at them and their house….wish I had on like that.
And hey your house may even get so famous for being so wonderful that they do bus tours that come by. But you see sometimes inside that house, the floor boards are rotten and the walls have some holes in them and there is a fair bit of maintenance to do….which is all pretty normal when you are really living in a house full of life experiences…but if we don’t look at them, assess them, get advice or even help then things will deteriorate. And there are some people who don’t want us to see this; they want to leave you with the ‘front of the house’ impression of their life. They think they will be judged because it isn’t as perfect as it looks. And that means they have to work hard at just keeping you at the front door and never letting you get too close or you may want to be invited in side, or damn it, you may come and knock on the door!
And people do start knocking at our door…they want to know how you keep your house so good! And they are so worried that if you saw the state of the house inside that you may judge them or not want to be around them anymore….. OH, if only they knew…if only they knew that the minute they opened that door and invited people in too see their ‘less than perfect’ house that they would connect on a whole new level with people. And the people would bring their hammers and nails and advice and support (you see they also have that problem with the floorboards!), and love and offers of help.
And the ones that like you better for the ‘front’ of your house…well you will be happy to let them drive by because you would have ‘real’ and authentic relationship with real and authentic people, who like you are doing their best to keep their house in good repair. And what you will also find is that once you invited people into your house that they would also bring with them so much love and laughter that it will be like having a vase of flowers to brighten very room and suddenly those walls, floor boards and fading carpets don’t looks so bad anyway and in fact they can add a bit of character while the repairs take place. It is exhausting trying to keep people just at your front door…. vulnerability is SO in and looks and feels great in every home!
