Today, I wore a mask, but tomorrow, I’m putting my mask away.
Heck, I
might even wash the beautiful, flower-patterned one that I’ve kept in my pocket
or in my purse or over my face for the majority of these last years. I might begin wearing lipstick when I go out
again (okay, I never actually wore lipstick…but I might start!). I’ll have to learn how to reanimate the lower
half of my face when conversing. It’s time
for my teeth, lips, and tongue to take an active, animated part in all the
socializing I plan to do tomorrow and the next day and the next. Because tomorrow, I’m taking it off. I’m exposing myself. The mask will be tossed into a pile of covid
memorabilia that I’ve amassed over the past two years.
How about
you?
Are you
ready-set-going to expose that beautiful face of yours? Shock everyone with the mustache you’ve been secretly
growing and grooming? Awe everyone with
those gleaming white teeth? Impress everyone
with smiles, grimaces, clenched or slack jaws?
Or perhaps you’ve taken that mask off long long long ago.
Either way, tomorrow
we collectively unmask. Lay bare. Expose ourselves.
And it’s time
to do the same with our hearts.
What just
happened? And who have I become?
I encourage you
to take a good long look at yourself. I
plan to do the same. Let’s call it “Me
Unmasked”. Because we are skipping or
running or limping or crawling out of a pandemic that has forever changed our
lives and it’s time to reflect on how we’ve reacted to covid, how we’ve grown,
and if this is a healthy place to remain.
There’s this
thing that happens when trauma strikes; trauma can take the form of a pandemic,
a war, social isolation, illness, death.
There’s this thing that happens when trauma strikes; trauma erodes the
world we know and recognize; it blurs the familiar edges of it even as it
readjusts, alters, fashions the world and its people into a new place with
brave new people that are rising up out of the ashes and ruins of the old.
Like it or
not, this world has changed. Like it or
not, we have changed.
How have you
and I reacted to covid? Did you get
sick? Did I adhere to policies? Did you get vaccinated? Did I wear a mask?
How have you
and I grown? Are you angry? Am I sad?
Have you destroyed relationships? Have I become obsessed with resistance? Are
you closer to God? Is my faith stronger?
Are you and I
in a healthy place? What have I learned
ABOUT MYSELF? How have I grown? Am I happy with this brave new person? Is she someone who shows love to others and
love to God?
There are different
ways to experience hardship. We can
resist hardship; adjust to hardship; succumb to hardship. Either way, we grow. Some of us are emerging stronger, more
beautiful, and resilient. Some of us have
become deformed, weaker, uglier, and rigid.
Today, as we
collectively unmask, I encourage you to take a good long look at the naked
truth.
What just
happened and who have I become?
.
.
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bv
