The me you see vs. the me I want to be....

The other day I heard someone say the most beautiful thing. She said "If, when we look at another person, we could take the most perfect snapshot they've ever shown us of themselves and remember that, we would have just a glimpse of the person they truly are".

What she was getting at is something I hope I can remember for the rest of my life.....that the person we show to others is such a limited view of who we really are that we should never, ever, judge someone (even ourselves) on what we see at first glance or what we see in any one moment of time....say that moment when we're losing our temper, or our patience, or that moment when the wrong words escape our lips....

This made so much sense to me. I know the person I want to be....I have a vision of that person in my head and heart, unfortunately I dont' think many people see her when they look at me. Some of that personality is simply not well enough developed for me to get it out, some of it I'm afraid to share, and some of it is still a "project" under construction. Nonetheless it's there, it's who I really aspire to be, it's who I feel, deep inside, is the "real" me.

Frankly if I thought for one minute that I was the only me I could ever be, that there wasn't a hope for change or improvement, I'd just give up......or be completely demoralized because frankly I'm not at all satisfied.....I know I have a lot more work to do on "me" and I just hope I get enough time in my life to accomplish it!

In the meantime I think maybe we should give each other a break, maybe not be so quick to take offense, maybe realize that very rarely is anyone out to really hurt us....more often than not when we get our feelings hurt it has more to do with us and how we feel about ourselves than what someone else has said.

Yup, there's a lot of work to do and as the song says......let it begin with me!