To be vulnerable, you risk a real possibility of being hurt, sometimes deeply. To be afraid, and you stay guarded, guaranteed to not experience living fully, and connecting completely to the world, both within, and around us. To protect from potential pain and sorrow, is to numb yourself from experiencing beauty and possibility.
There is no right or wrong. Each has its place. Each is necessary even. When one gets out of balance with the other, things get unhealthy. But even unhealthy can lead us to somewhere we need to go personally. So the question always remaims, is feeling all of what life has to offer, the unpredictability and true beauty of living, worth the risk of getting harmed in the process of opening yourself to it.
Somedays, we all answer with a yes, and others, with a no. Only we know which is what we need most in this very moment.
[My friend magenta inspired this musing via her recent post]
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Hmm It's both. I've always been a bit withdrawn and guarded. Vulnerability is very selective for me, although as I age, I am more free with it now. Cages are no way to live life. Sometimes the vulnerability is for our own catharsis and growth. There's something to be said for embracing or at least acknowledging our full authentic humanness in all it's facets, good and bad.
