That Terrifying Truth

I was talking with a friend this week and I asked him how he was doing. He said that he was unable to relax. He expressed alot of anxiety or uncertainty. I can certainly identify. I think that we all can.

But as we were talking he used an adjective that I found interesting. Terrifying.

I have also become familiar with this word--specifically as it relates to living a life of authenticity and truthfulness. Why?

When you've lived so long--ten, twenty, thirty or more years--without ever being completely honest or when you've lived behind a maze of mirages and carefully constructed facades, then authenticity truly can be terrifying.

Intimacy--allowing yourself to be known--is scary. This is a challenge for all people, but it is an especially uncertain experience for those just experiencing it for the first time.

In the Fellowship of the Rings, the first movie of the trilogy, the hobbits are making their way on the journey when they suddenly stop. It hits them what a momentous task has been handed them. One of them makes a statement that has stuck with me.

He says, "when I take another step, it will be the furthest that I've ever gone."

Like any new experience, honesty is a process. Engage in it step by step. As you do, the old smoke and mirror illusions will collapse faster and faster. This is scary, but continue on. The rewards are well worth the loss--which is the true fallacy. There is no loss, only truth. It is just the sense of loss of a false self that terrifies us.

And then all of a sudden, on your journey, you'll realize, "when I take another step, it will be the furthest I've ever gone."