The Whole Me
Monday Prompt: Me: What does it mean to be a whole person?
Me: What makes us a whole person?
Heart: Are you really asking or do you want me to tell you what you want to hear?
Me: I want to know what you think.
Heart: Then you better be willing to listen.
Me: What do you mean? I am a good person.
Heart: Yes, we are, but to make a whole person it is not just the good parts, it is all the parts.
Me: I think it should just be what makes us look best.
Heart: Then that is not the whole us. We are who we are because of all the good and the bad.
Me: We are smart.
Heart: Yes we are, but we are also insecure in some of our knowledge. We also know very little about a great many things.
Me: People don’t need to know that.
Heart: They do if we wish to be a whole person and want to keep learning and growing.
Me: We are loving and caring.
Heart: Yes we are, but we are also an introvert. We don’t open up right away to many people. We also get drained being around many people.
Me: People don’t need to know that. We can be very sociable.
Heart: Yes, we can but it often takes a lot of energy and we tend to want to run away after it gets too much. People need to know that or they might think we are angry or upset when we shut down.
Me: We are empathic.
Heart: Yes, we are and many people feel better around us. We can also help heal some. But it takes a toll on us. We can also absorb some of their pain and emotions. A lot if we are not careful. We need to recharge after. Some might think we are avoiding them or people in general if they don’t know that about us.
Me: That people feel better should be enough for us.
Heart: If they know the price it might make them appreciate us even more.
Me: I am a very positive person.
Heart: Yes, we are, but we are also very sensitive and our feeling can be hurt. We treat others nicely, but some do not return that to us.
Me: People don’t want to know there is pain behind the smile sometimes.
Heart: They need to know if they wish to know the whole person. How will someone help us when there is pain if we do not allow them to see it?
Me: They should know we are a retired teacher and were respected.
Heart: First of all respect is not something you earn once and get it granted by everyone after that. It has to be constantly given and earned. Second, they need to know how much we personally sacrificed to be the teacher we were. We have talked about how we could have been more balanced a person back then, but you didn’t listen to me about that. Denying our own desires and needs may have helped make us a good teacher. It also probably cost us on living a fulfilled life.
Me: They need to know all of all of our triumphs.
Heart: Yes, they do but we need to also share our traumas and failures.
Me: Why the traumas and failures? They might not think those are very good.
Heart: They are as much a part or even more a part of who we present to the world now than our triumphs are. We learned from many of our failures and much of that learning lead to those triumphs. The traumas let people know our limits and boundaries. People might also be able to help us heal from our traumas if they know about them.
Me: Who needs to know all of this? Everyone we meet?
Heart: Of course not, but everyone that really wants to know us has to know these things. If they wish to get close and love us they need to love all our parts.
Me: How do we decide who and how much?
Heart: That is a separate conversation. However, our close friends deserve to know the whole us like we want to know the whole them.
Me: Won’t we lose everyone?
Heart: Every one of our friends has good and bad points. Do we stop loving them because of their bad points?
Me: Yes, some of them because of what they or we believe or practice.
Heart: Yes and the ones that don’t want us in their lives because of the whole us do not deserve us in theirs. Those that take advantage of parts of our whole do not deserve to be in ours.
Peace be with you
