It’s The Shedding, Not The Source That Matters

It seems every time I publicly revisit a section of the broken road that led me to the realization that rediscovering and resuscitating the traits that characterized the hearts that accompanied us into this world are critical to our ability to experience and enjoy the fullness of life to which we are called, the stage ends up littered with tears. Last Friday’s presentation in New Mexico to a room full of seasoned trial lawyers from across the country was no exception.

Though often asked, I’m never quite sure whether those tears spring from the broken pieces, the tireless struggles to put those pieces back together, the recognition that there’s still work to be done, regret that it took so long to get here, gratitude that I got here at all, an overwhelming sense of humility that I have the opportunity to share such a powerful message of hope and healing – or, more likely, some combination of all of the above,

But it occurred to me this morning that the source is far less important than the shedding, the willingness, especially for a man (a 40+ year trial lawyer no less!), to be vulnerable, to crack himself open and lay his soul bare before the world, before friends, colleagues, and strangers – and do it unapologetically. Because every tear of mine that falls gives a hurting, afraid-it-was-alone heart the “permission” it’s been longing for to finally shed one (or two) of its own.

They also bring “The Shedder” one step closer to finding his own way back to a heart that, long before it knew the pain of growing up in the shadow of an alcoholic mother and an almost unfathomable array of other worldly wounds, loved itself – and Life – enough to smile like this!