The World i choose and the world i deny

​One of the mistakes we make in our relationships with one another is assuming the worlds we see in one another are the worlds one another are choosing.

It's easy to assume we are both here in this moment because we choose to be. We are behaving as we choose to behave. We have become who we have chosen to become.

We all have choice; that's true. I'm not here to suggest otherwise. We have personal responsibility and accountability. But neither of those are as simple as a demand.

Of ourselves or of one another.

Because sometimes our choices are accompanied by uninvited guests. Guests from our past that we were sure we'd locked away. Only some guests are escape artists.

They are never locked away.

We try new locks, they keep picking them.

Sometimes this fear I have of you has nothing to do with you, it's all about the escape artist.

Sometimes this unwillingness I have to open up to you has nothing to do with you, it's all about the escape artist.

Sometimes my lashing out at you has nothing to do with you, it's all about the escape artist.

The unpredictable escape artist that let's me freely make the choices I want to make, but denies me any freedom to decide which choices it gets to be a part of.

Sometimes the escape artist doesn't care for peace, so it inserts volatility. Sometimes in doesn't like quiet, so it inserts noise.

We are not hopeless or helpless against this escape artist, though. It is only dangerous when we try so hard to keep it locked up.

It is only dangerous when it is the world we deny.

When we begin to allow the world we deny to be a part of the world we choose we deprive the escape artist of it's power to invade. To show up uninvited.

Imposters are no longer imposters when they are invited guests. When we begin to accept them for who they are; ghosts from the past. And more importantly, who they are not.

They are not you. They are not me.

Denying who we are and where we've been creates turmoil within. Only turmoil doesn't have much interest in staying within. It loves a good fight. But we don't have to force turmoil to fight its way out. We can invite its way out.

Invite it out and see it for what it is.

A ghost long gone.

It is not me. It is not you.