mask
It's Halloween, did you really think I would pass up the chance to blog about masks?
Halloween makes me happy, and it's not just the sugar high from the candy -it's the costumes and the masks and for one evening a year, pretending I am someone else. As I thought about the blog this week, I had to admit that I probably put on a mask much more often than once a year. Masks serve a purpose, and they have historically - it's not all fun and games. I have included a few thought provoking quotes on the subject of masks and ask that you ponder the masks you wear. As with many things in our lives, a mask you wear was likely put in place because it protected you or served as a benefit. However, you may be in a place now where the mask actually has a cost instead of a benefit, but it is so much a part of who you are that you forgot you were wearing it.
I have a Halloween Challenge for you ... what masks do you wear? which mask is it time to throw away?
“We understand how dangerous a mask can be. We all become what we pretend to be.” ― Patrick Rothfuss, The Name of the Wind
“She had blue skin, And so did he. He kept it hid And so did she. They searched for blue Their whole life through, Then passed right by- And never knew.” ―
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“No man, for any considerable period, can wear one face to himself and another to the multitude, without finally getting bewildered as to which may be the true.” ―
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“We all wear masks, and the time comes when we cannot remove them without removing some of our own skin.” ―
“Don’t you, when strangers and friends come to call, straighten the cushions, kick the books under the bed and put away the letter you were writing? How many of us want any of us to see us as we really are? Isn’t the mirror hostile enough?” ―
“I say what other people only think, and when all the rest of the world is in a conspiracy to accept the mask for the true face, mine is the rash hand that tears off the plump pasteboard and shows the bare bones beneath.” ―
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“Like a Columbus of the heart, mind and soul I have hurled myself off the shores of my own fears and limiting beliefs to venture far out into the uncharted territories of my inner truth, in search of what it means to be genuine and at peace with who I really am. I have abandoned the masquerade of living up to the expectations of others and explored the new horizons of what it means to be truly and completely me, in all my amazing imperfection and most splendid insecurity.” ―
In his work “The Madman”, Kahlil Gibran wrote: “One day, long before many gods were born, I woke from adeep sleep and all my masks were stolen, the seven masks I have
fashioned and worn in seven lives, I ran maskless through the crowded streets shouting, „Thieves, thieves, the cursed thieves.‟ and when I reached the marketplace....I looked up.... the sun kissed my own naked face for the first time. For the first time my own naked face and my soul were inflamed with love for the sun, and I wanted my masks no more.”
Let us be “cursed thieves” to each other, as we steal the masks from off each other‟s face.
