And once again, I can't think of anything off my own bat, so have to be inspired by others... and on the question of fitting in...
Hey, you know me... full of useful/useless (delete as appropriate) advice... So here's the thing.
I'm an odd shape. Always have been. Certainly tried to do the fitting-into-the-appropriate-mould thing, and never found it to work. I got close to giving up on life itself when fitting seemed the only thing to do and turned out to be futile. Thankfully I was too juvenile and scared to do anything really serious...
As an aside I spent my formative years in a church environment which I quickly rejected, even when I was probably too young to fully understand what I was doing. However, in moving from front-of-house hymn-singing I found myself in the orchestra, and this confirmed a love of music from a different participation level, so no bad thing. In later life, I re-evaluated having faith in something bigger and more important than myself, and I'm happy with where I'm at.
So here comes the lesson learned from experience... I realise that I have straight edges (no pun intended), curved edges, sharp edges, fuzzy edges, black, white, every colour in between... There is no one shape that matches mine. I do not want to fit myself into something that could potentially surround and suffocate me. I like to be able to breath.
Instead, I try to gather around me shapes that compliment mine. There is no one shape that suits me best - I recognise that some shapes are more rudimentary, more conventional, and some parts of me match those too.
I have endeavoured to make big bits of me fit into the closest known shape, and the consequential fallout is not pretty. I now make a special effort to avoid that. Small bits of me can be honed to fit certain aspects, such as work environment for example, and I can live with those minor adjustments.
Those who I let get closest to me will understand what is fitting, and what fits (pun definitely intended).
A couple of phrases borrowed from a friend's blog space:
Those that matter don't mind, and those that mind don't matter...
and
I'd rather be hated for who I am than loved for who I am not...
Learn to love the shape you are. I'm getting there.
Hey, you know me... full of useful/useless (delete as appropriate) advice... So here's the thing.
I'm an odd shape. Always have been. Certainly tried to do the fitting-into-the-appropriate-mould thing, and never found it to work. I got close to giving up on life itself when fitting seemed the only thing to do and turned out to be futile. Thankfully I was too juvenile and scared to do anything really serious...
As an aside I spent my formative years in a church environment which I quickly rejected, even when I was probably too young to fully understand what I was doing. However, in moving from front-of-house hymn-singing I found myself in the orchestra, and this confirmed a love of music from a different participation level, so no bad thing. In later life, I re-evaluated having faith in something bigger and more important than myself, and I'm happy with where I'm at.
So here comes the lesson learned from experience... I realise that I have straight edges (no pun intended), curved edges, sharp edges, fuzzy edges, black, white, every colour in between... There is no one shape that matches mine. I do not want to fit myself into something that could potentially surround and suffocate me. I like to be able to breath.
Instead, I try to gather around me shapes that compliment mine. There is no one shape that suits me best - I recognise that some shapes are more rudimentary, more conventional, and some parts of me match those too.
I have endeavoured to make big bits of me fit into the closest known shape, and the consequential fallout is not pretty. I now make a special effort to avoid that. Small bits of me can be honed to fit certain aspects, such as work environment for example, and I can live with those minor adjustments.
Those who I let get closest to me will understand what is fitting, and what fits (pun definitely intended).
A couple of phrases borrowed from a friend's blog space:
Those that matter don't mind, and those that mind don't matter...
and
I'd rather be hated for who I am than loved for who I am not...
Learn to love the shape you are. I'm getting there.
No comments:
Post a Comment