My current deep and true adventure is to reflect my truest heart in all I think and say and do in every situation, with the intention of nurturing deep and meaningful connection with people by being deeply authentic with them. I am pretty sure I am a genuine and authentic person, but I am also very reserved in such a way that I feel my deepest values are not always readily seen. You know? If you think of people as an onion with layers, just think of me showing only my outer layer to people. I think this is okay. At least for people in general. It’s okay to be reserved. It’s fitting if people need to earn access to your deeper layers. It’s a way of valuing yourself.
But in my case, I’ve come to feel convicted that the way in which my deepest values are not readily seen leaves people feeling more alone because they can’t connect with those things in me. It also keeps me from sharing my creative endeavors which are meant to be shared and be points of connection. And in a world where some of my deepest values seem to be less and less popular and more and more misunderstood, I actually feel more convicted to share them.
All that being said, here is the summary of some of my deepest yet unfashionable values, which I will write more on again in the future:
- I love and follow Jesus. I have found nothing as beautiful and good and true in life as Jesus. If you’d like, please read more about that here.
- I highly value family. I’ll write more about this later.
- I am fiercely committed to thinking for myself. Sometimes it can certainly be hard to truly think for ourselves, but I truly believe it is one of our highest obligations to ourselves to do so. Read more of my thoughts on this here.
- I am de-political in that I do not think that politics are the answer to the world’s woes and I feel like politics are often exploitative and manipulative and full of propaganda. I am wary of political ideology and political landscapes, but I am absolutely a proponent of freedom. Also though, I am certainly not judging people who are highly political… I understand they see politics differently than I do. Read more, if you’d like, here.
- I champion people being their authentic selves and I value unconditional compassion. I don’t want to say much here, but lest this value be misunderstood among all the voices out there: while I champion people being their authentic selves, because of my personal experience struggling with self-honesty I think it is much harder to be our authentic selves than we often think. We hide under layers of ourselves, even when intending to be genuine. So I challenge other people, just like I challenge myself, to actually be authentic and truthful with themselves. That is what I champion. I don’t want you to conform to me. But I don’t want you to lie to yourself either. And as far as unconditional compassion, I want to express this value because somehow it has become okay to hate in the name of making the world a better place. And I am not okay with silently standing by to watch that happen. More of my thoughts on all this here.
- I believe in being open and transparent about my struggles. I truly believe this is part of what makes the world a less lonely place. We fear being open about our struggles so much, but there is freedom in that openness. At the same time, while I believe in being open, that doesn’t mean it’s always easy or that I am successful in it. Also, sometimes I am awkward and talk too much at parties about having an existential crisis 🙂 Anyhow, I don’t have a link to more of my thoughts about this. Cause I haven’t written more about it.
- I value deep and meaningful connection over social acceptance. All day, every day 🙂