Masking the heartache

[Image credit: scottchan]

Wear a mask that grins and lies, it hides our cheeks and shades our eyes.
The debt we pay to human guile, with torn and broken hearts,
we smile … ~ Paul Laurence Dunbar

You know who you are.  The one who dons a mask to hide the pain.  Your countenance contains no clue to the misery locked behind the walls of your heart.  To the outsider looking in, your life is good.  Productivity equates to happiness and when someone inquires of your well-being, your natural response is “fine,” of course.  But fine, in your book, means breathing.  Able to function.  Equipped with skills at compartmentalizing betrayal, disappointment and shattered dreams … without self-combusting.  You believe if you pretend long enough, the difference between reality and fantasy will blur, making it impossible to discern.  So you smile and attempt to fool those who know you best.  Because if you succeed, the lies have a greater chance at becoming truth and no one will be the wiser.  Especially you.

Do you hide a broken heart behind a mask of lies?

Regaining your balance

[Image credit: ponsuwan]

It can be a rude awakening when the rug is suddenly pulled out from under you.  It can shatter that vulnerable part of you, the side of you who lives transparently and trusts fully.  You may be left with shattered hopes and dreams, as well as feelings of stupidity, betrayal, confusion or worse.  Perhaps the hardest thing isn’t the brokenness, but that you’re forced to take a good hard look at yourself.  And you may conduct an honest assessment of your entire belief system and discover you don’t like what you see.  There may be skeletons lurking under the surface called selfishness or greed.  However, instead of dealing with them, you might be tempted to stuff them into the back of your closet and ignore them.  Of course, overlooking these “ickies” will not make them go away.  But once you address them, you can right yourself and begin to regain your balance.

How do you regain your balance when the rug is pulled out from under you?