Be Who You Are

Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who
mind don't matter, and those who matter don't mind...
--Dr Seuss

There are a lot of people who spend a lot of time worrying about what other people are doing with their lives. When I say or do something that comes from my heart and someone criticizes me for my thoughts or actions, I have to remind myself that as long as I wasn't hurting anyone else, there was nothing wrong with what I said or did. The people who concern themselves with what I do or say because they want to exert some sort of control over me for some reason really don't matter--or at least, their reactions to my actions must not be important to me...

I am who I am, and I must be true to that.

If someone criticizes me or my actions in an effort to get me to act some other way, then I should be suspicious of their motives: are they trying to get me to change because they have my best interests in mind? And do they truly know what my best interests are?

The more of us who say what we feel and who be who we are, the more diverse and unique this world will be. The more of us who adopt the "safe" and the "ordinary" things to say and ways to be, the less truly unique input into the world we'll be able to give...

We can contribute to the diversity and uniqueness in this world, or we can contribute to the uniformity and conformity. When I think of the image I would like to present to a young person in order to help that person to grow into a truly unique individual, I know that I need to be truly me, truly myself. Otherwise, I'm simply teaching them to conform, and that really leads nowhere new or special...

The more we let each voice sing out with its own true tone,
the richer will be the diversity of the chant in unison...
--Angelus Silesius


- Living Life Fully -