Trey's Days No. 23

Connection is why we're here, why I'm here.  And connection requires vulnerability.  And vulnerability requires courage.  Brene Brown has something to teach me, maybe all of us, about this whole connection, vulnerability courage thing.

It was news to me that the word "courage" comes from the Latin word for heart.  When "courage" first came into the English language, it meant "to tell the story of who you are with your whole heart."  Do I do that?  No.

Connection is my problem.  All my life I have felt like I was outside looking in, that everyone else knew something I didn't know, that they all knew each other and I was the new kid, the outsider.  Somehow when I was growing up, I got the message from my parents and grandparents that who I really was, maybe because I'm gay, I don't know, was something that I had to hide.  I had to pretend to be what you wanted me to be, and somehow you always knew that wasn't who I really was.  Hence, a disconnect.

Dr. Brown in her "TED Talk" on vulnerability tells us that connection is why we're here, that connection requires vulnerability, and vulnerability is all about being who we really are, no matter what.  I know I need connection, I know I crave it.  There's a clue here on how to get it.  How do we feel truly connected, how do we allow ourselves to be nurtured by those connections?  It starts with having the courage to tell the story of who we are with our whole hearts.  Can I do that?  I think I'm going to try!