How to become a more honest person.

There are a wide array of writers that I read, from Penelope Trunk to Betty Duffy. I make it a rule for myself to not write about the journey of being a writer because there's plenty of that commentary on some other blog. Instead, I want to focus on a piece that Duffy posted a while back that really stuck on my mind.

The phrase of "living in the light" isn't some cliched Christian phrase (at least in this case). Duffy's friend phrases it well, "There would be no lies or deceit in the bedroom, no words said that she didn't mean, no acting in ways that she didn't act naturally, to make the gift of self, the gift of humbly and wholly being herself as God made her--not as some magazine told her she should be."

After reading that post for the fifth time,  I searched to find the photo posted above. It was taken when I was fifteen or sixteen, and it remains to this day my favorite photo of myself.

That appeals to me when I consider the hoops I've tried to force myself to leap through to maintain the appearances of who I am and what I do/don't believe. I struggle with that with writing this blog, with having an understanding of who I want to be in the future and what I want to be able to accomplish.

So, here it is. You become a more honest person well you lay aside the hoops that you force others and yourself to leap through. Giving up that mental exercise gives you more energy to be present, to have the ability to give others the gift of yourself.