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Life's Examination Room

The unexamined life is not worth living.  Socrates

I understand.  It's hard to see the flaws in yourself.  It's hard to have someone else point them out to you.  I get it.  It's hard to realize that you aren't all that and a bag of chips and maybe, just maybe, you aren't as superior to others as you secretly think.  (After all, you would never actually say that you think that out loud!)  It's hard to hear someone point out something that you do or say and realize they are right and you kinda suck at the moment.  It's hard to recognize that maybe you don't really see yourself in true light and others can.  In the past couple of months I've run across some people who don't want to examine themselves.  They would rather live in their self-deception of who they are than to take what someone shares with them and do some introspection.  I feel badly for them, once I get over being totally pissed off at them that is.  Socrates is right, when we live our lives and don't invite or allow examination in then we aren't living life really.  We are living a version of what our life could actually be.  The introspection, the examination is really for our benefit.  It leads us to living our lives in fuller ways, with more grace and authenticity.  There are going to be times that the delivery method of how someone sees is isn't your preferred way to hear that about yourself - get over it.  Really, get over it.  Take what was said and be honest with yourself.  Look inside and allow yourself to see the truth of what was shared.  Usually people see things in us - our character, our work ethic, etc - that is accurate and that we don't see.  So accept it, make the necessary changes and restitution if necessary and move forward in your life grateful that you are someone who invites growth into your life.  See, what makes me sad about these couple of people is that they are so "haughty" that they don't even take a second look at what is being said to search it out for truth and I stand by (I wasn't the one that delivered the truth btw, just a by-stander) and watch them live a life that is lacking in certain things because of their haughty behavior toward flaws in their character.  I feel sad for them and then I dial someone in my life and ask them to hit me with whatever they have seen me doing or saying recently that hasn't been good.  See I believe life is worth living so I am making choices, hard as they may be at times, to allow examination to occur.
How about you?  Do you get dragged into life's examination room or do you willing go in and hop on the table?

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