Bret

I am all for getting the outside into alignment with the inside, so kudos on taking brave steps in that direction. It’s a life-long journey, ridding ourselves of our own hypocrisy, and it’s hard work!

Best wishes on the road, Myra!
Bret

I spent a good deal of my life trying to “look right” on the outside and never allowing myself to think about whether I actually believed what I was saying and doing. Living that way will make you crazy over time — and so some twenty years of therapy later, I have become a devotee of telling myself the truth.

The process of determining the truth sometimes gets complicated and confusing; and I have found, like you, that getting the idea to words and the words to paper takes me a long way toward understanding what I think, know, believe, or just wish is the truth.

And then there are those times when I just have to be the parent and put my childlike brain in time-out — it’s just safer all the way around!

I think it is often the case that we don’t understand ourselves: our thoughts, our feelings, our motivations, our beliefs. Sometimes it’s useful to take a closer look, break it down, test the boundaries, confront the inconsistencies. So the way I see it, I have a belief system, some tenets to which I cling; but I don’t always know what they are until I’ve tried to articulate them. Once I’ve tried to put an idea into words, it becomes something I can evaluate, refine, sculpt further. So what “I think I believe” is that set of things that has been through at least one articulation process, subject to further revision.

If there is Truth here, I’m absolutely sure it’s not the whole picture. But it is an attempt to clarify and understand what I think I believe.

I appreciate your comment.