September 22, 2025- Authenticity

When you are content to simply be yourself and don’t compare or compete, everyone will respect you. 

~Lao Tzu

How long can you reasonably keep up a masquerade? This person we pretend to be, on the premise of being adored, what will happen when that person goes away? Are we trying to play matchmaker between others and the role we’re playing? Stop it. The real you is worthy of love.

Not everyone in the world will love us, and that’s OK. We do not need to continuously find a way to act that suits the preferences and the desires of the people we are in front of. We may let certain parts of our personality shine at a birthday party, and others at a burial. We may code-switch, depending on whom we are talking to. But the core of ourselves can remain true, no matter the occasion or the audience. The best version of us that is available in this time and space is good enough for the people we would want in our lives.

We are not here to be stifled. We don’t need to make apologies for who and what we are. Our true, authentic selves are worthy of love. Our true selves can expand, grow, evolve, reform. When they do, the change should be led, not by the opinion of others, but by the vision we hold up as the best version of ourselves. We should love ourselves enough to choose that vision.