when honesty isn’t a positive

We speak of honesty and authenticity as this beautiful, wonderful, desired thing. Which it is to many. It can be utterly freeing to drop the facade and be one’s “true” self (after all, our selves may change, and we may not have “one true self”).

But it can also be terrifying. Honesty can be

Someone loving you less, even one’s mother or one’s oldest, trusted friend;

Persecution and judgement;

Losing one’s children, income, or home;

Abandonment and social isolation;

Loss of faith in the one person you loved more than anyone, the person you believed would be there for you, always

Until you told them the truth.

Strive for authenticity and honesty, not for anyone else, but for yourself. Because you deserve it.

…. but also, please be gentle and forgiving to those for whom that act of vulnerability has cost them the things they hold most dearly in life.