Living Your Truth: Be real, BE YOU!

DISCOVERING YOU, March 2010, by Alicja Zajac

Living your Truth:
Be Real, BE YOU!

You know the GCDA motto: Be real, be you! It certainly is all about being your authentic, real self and living your truth. Let’s look at an aspect of how that shows up in our lives and read Osa's story...

Osa, a petite, quiet, dark-haired girl of 15, has had to go straight home after school at 4 pm for a year because she picks up her 14-month old brother from the next-door babysitter and looks after him until her mother returns from work, which is usually around 5:30 pm. She loves her little brother and has no problem with this arrangement, plus, she gets dinner ready for the three of them. Osa’s mom has arranged with the sitter that, if need be, Osa just has to call the sitter and tell her if she has to stay after school for extra help or to play in an after-school sport. That gets her home just before 6 and she’s even made it to their door at the same time as her mom.

Lately, some of her friends have been bugging her for never going to hang out with them at the mall after school. Although she doesn’t really like hanging out at the mall, to keep the peace Osa has called the sitter twice in the past and lied about having to stay after school, making sure she got home on time to pick little Mitch up before her mom returned. Her friends who usually hang out at the mall much later than her have picked on her and called her a ‘little momma’s girl’ and a loser. Even her best friend Leonie didn’t stand by her, and that hurt the most. One Thursday morning while walking to Math class, Pat whispered to her that everyone was going to meet at the mall to take Leonie out for her birthday.

“But we’re all going to her party on Saturday,” stated Osa.

Pat just gave her ‘that look’ and said, “Hm! I thought she was your best friend! I’d do anything for my best friend.”

Earlier that morning Osa had overheard the sitter excitedly telling her mother that she had to leave by 5:30 that afternoon for an appointment. Osa was reminded that she really needed to pick Mitch up on time and Osa had assured her mom that she would. Now, feeling awful already, she joined the group in the mall and purposely didn’t call the sitter. She knew she'd get there on time, she thought. And if the sitter is just a bit late for her appointment it should be fine. Anyhow, she can always change an appointment, right?

Although Osa felt sick about it, she didn’t even call home after 6 pm. Even though she’d had her fill of her friends’ silly talk and was dying to go home, she felt the peer pressure and stayed until everyone else was ready to leave, much to their surprise.

At 8 pm she finally got home. All was in darkness and she began to panic. She ran over to her neighbour’s home and knocked on the door. There was no answer so she quietly turned the doorknob. She heard weeping in the living room and ran in to find her mother consoling the babysitter. Mitch was asleep in his playpen.

“Where have you been, Osa?” her mother asked in a stern, quiet voice.

Osa had never heard her mother speak that way. The lie she was going to tell fluttered away into the wind and she told the two women the truth.

“Oh Osa,” her mother continued in that quiet, scary tone. “You should have called. Poor Monica...” and her voice trailed away as she hugged the weeping sitter.

Osa learned that Monica had a sister who was traveling by plane from Vancouver. She was going to change planes at the airport close by en route to her new home in Mexico. Because of a family argument, Monica and her sister Sharon hadn’t seen each other in over twenty years. They had been emailing each other lately and were trying to sort things out. Sharon had stated that if Monica could meet her at 6 pm at the airport, they would be able to see each other for an hour before she had to board the next plane.

“If you aren’t there,” Sharon had written, “I’ll know that you really don’t want to start a new relationship with me.”

“You didn't show up. Monica couldn’t make it because she doesn’t have a car, plus, even if she had taken a cab, she had the baby to look after,” her mother sternly stated. “By the time she had waited the first half hour for you to get home, traffic would have been even worse and so she’d never make it on time anyways. She couldn’t get through to me because I was in a meeting and she knew that I’d be frightened if I came home to find them gone. She made her choice and stayed here with the baby!”

Osa felt like the world had disappeared from under her feet. What was she to do? How could she ever make it up to Monica? Would her mom ever trust her again?

Had Osa been living from her truth? She didn’t like malls. She actually prefered going home and looking after her little brother. She hated to lie. She had a good heart and would have not made the choice to lie and go out if she had known the huge reason why the sitter needed to be on time for that appointment. But, do we have to have important, critical reasons to be true to ourselves? Shouldn’t we just naturally set the pattern to live each moment in truth? Our choices are linked to our logic and to our conscience. Our conscience is a huge part of what makes us human.

Lately I seem to constantly come across the theme of: ‘be your true, authentic self’. Whether this is stated as: ‘be the best that you can be at each moment’, or ‘live your truth’, or ‘be present, always’, it all boils down to: ‘Am I showing up as my true self and not letting others control me and pull at my energy?’ ‘Am I conscious of every thought that I think, every word that leaves my mouth, every choice that I consider, every decision that I make?’

It might seem hard to consider each second, each moment, each thought, because we may have made it a habit to let others lead us where we don’t really want to go... or maybe we have become those controllers... However, if we, ourselves, make the decision that in this year of Truth, in 2010, we are going to live according to our pure authenticity and honesty, wow... what a great, brave offering we will present to the world... an offering of our beauty... of our authentic, true self.

How has 'Be real, be you' made positive changes in your life and in the lives of others?

I wish you, dear readers, a life of wonderful joy in expressing the real, authentic you, and in exploring and discovering the true beauty and authenticity in others.

© Alicja Zajac