Imagine a beautiful orange in your hand, glistening in the sun. It smells wonderful, and you can almost taste the refreshing fruit inside. As you start to peel it, you become aware of the protection the hard peel offers, holding the beauty of what is inside.
Interestingly, isn't that what we do in order to protect our ourselves? We hide the brightness and beauty of who we are underneath a ‘peel’ that we build around us. Instead of allowing others to truly know us and all of our vulnerabilities, we only show them the bright colourful parts of ourselves that we think they will approve of.
Don't we all want to connect with others that we care about in a deeper, more meaningful way? Perhaps it is time to let our hard outer shells soften, and let the 'juice', the true essence of ourselves shine.
Next time you hold back from doing or saying something that reflects the truth of who you are, picture that orange and the delicious juice being shared, as the hard exterior is peeled back. Be you juice and all!
The Blue Glass
Imagine you are walking along a beautiful beach all by yourself. The sun is shining, the scent of sea salt is in the air and the waves are gently flowing up the beach and back out. You become lost in thought as you begin to feel more and more relaxed and more tuned into nature. Then suddenly there is a glint of blue light amongst the small pebbles that catches your eye. You walk over and see it as a piece of blue glass. A beautiful deep blue shaped like a heart. And you wonder what the piece of glass was before it was shattered? And how the pieces were tumbled around in the ocean until they became such as this piece, smooth and still showing the beautiful colour. Who owned this piece of glass? Or did different people have it in their possession? As you continue to let it roll around amongst your palm and fingers the blue occasionally reflects the sun. And it occurs to you that this piece of glass is a lot like life. It starts as a whole piece and then becomes many pieces, all chapters of life. So, you shake the little piece and ask the glass what chapter is opening to me now? And you softly hear amongst the waves, you get to write the chapter, what are you going to write? Sure, you may get tumbled a bit but that makes you wiser and more resilient and more beautiful because your blue light shines brighter.