TRUTH

Lately,
because I have bumped up against a few,
I’ve been thinking about
lies.

Or maybe I’m actually thinking about truth.

Like how easy it is

to twist it
or color it
or withhold it
or reframe it
or ration it
or hide it.

And yet how none of those things can actually change it.

(Or can it??)

I am usually a person who can see the both/and.

Both sides.

Both this
and that.

But I’ll admit
I can’t quite figure out how it works
when two people
have an entirely different version
of the
exact
same
story.

And there is only room for one.

Are both sides always true?
Is someone always untrue?
Is it all about perspective?

Or is there an ultimate, bigger truth that transcends our meddling?
And, if so, how do we find it?

And what about those times when we
are so deluded
that we don’t even realize we are lying
even to ourselves?

Which brings me back to lies.
What are they, exactly?

Not telling the truth?
Not telling the whole truth?
Not knowing the truth?

And do we lie because we are
selfish?
mean?
blind?
bored?
afraid?
protecting?
calculating?
desperately needing something to be true, whether or not it actually
is?

Yes.
And no.
And who the hell knows.

Because that is the nature of a lie.
We don’t know.

But what I do know for sure, from experience, is this:

How slippery
and dangerous
it gets

when the truth is messed with
intentionally

and especially when
a runaway untruth
eventually, suddenly, and mercilessly
steamrolls
those of us in its path.

Leaving wreckage
and wounds
and not much else
behind.

And how refreshing
and restoring
and redemptive
and beautiful
and life-giving
it is

when someone offers
a cup of pure, clean, honest, unfiltered

truth.

Even when it’s costly.

Because it often is.

__

Here’s to truth, friends. Here’s to finding yours and speaking yours. And here’s to those of you who do.

xo