Slap in the face

Sitting here this evening doing a little blog stalking reading and came across a post that honestly stopped me in my tracks.  Does that ever happen to you, someone else has written something that honestly is a verbal slap in the face.  Today a post at (in)courage has certainly done that for me.

We notice a problem but think it’s going to be too messy, too risky, too complicated to fix right now. So we make do. We work around it. We ignore it.

Yep, that is me for sure!  I am an avoider, especially an avoider of conflict.  I will run from it at pretty much any cost.  And I guess in that, I think that if I avoid a situation, that it will magically go away, but the truth is that it NEVER happens that way.  I am learning that the hard way right now.  Those issues that we keep ignoring, just put stumbling blocks in our path.

Are you ignoring a communication breakdown, a disappointment, a mistake that you can’t truly move past? Are you telling everyone who asks – even yourself – that you’re past the pain, over the heartbreak even though you continue to hurt and bleed? Are you pretending like everything is okay, while going out of your way to avoid a person or a place or a topic of conversation?

Is it possible you’re paying the price of the problem, even though you have chosen not to face it?

As I continue to avoid so many things in my life, push the problems deeper and deeper below the surface, I never really thought that I was paying the price of my problems even thought I had not decided to face it head on.  I am a mask wearer.  Most days, I find it easier to put a smile on my face and play the game of the girl who has it all together, only to come home exhausted from playing those silly games.  I make the conscious decision to not face my problems head on, but to mask them in various ways.  So what would be the price if I chose to face my problems?  Freedom?  Happiness? Joy?  Why is it that we are so stubborn and continue to accept the exhaustion, the hurt and the pain instead of dealing with those things that are obstacles in our paths.  

Maybe it is time to stop the pretending, to let the mask fall off and to deal with it.  Maybe it is time....