At one time or another, we’ve all had our feelings hurt.
Most likely, our dog didn’t hurt our feelings. Or the squirrel, scampering up the tree. No. Getting our feelings hurt typically happens as the result of an interaction with another human being.
When our feelings become hurt, it isn’t like scraping a knee or stubbing a toe. The pain of it is very real, yet, we can’t see the physicality of it. It’s because that harm is an emotional and psychological ache.
Unfortunately, I wear my heart on my sleeve. I have a tendency put my emotions and feelings out there in the open, where they are vulnerable. But even if I could keep them tucked away, from being pricked or prodded, I’m not sure that I would. Because it goes both ways, the good and the bad.
It doesn’t take much for me to get my feelings hurt, either real or imagined, on my part. Even as a child, my family told me many times that I was thin-skinned. Oversensitive then and oversensitive now.
I am not a wallower, a crier. I don’t feel sorry for myself. My life is full of good fortune and boons.
I know a lot of people who seem to have an armored shell. They aren’t bothered by what others say or do. Or so they say. But I wonder. Are they truly not bothered by insults or criticism? Or unaware? Or keeping their real feelings pressed down inside?
Or could it be they have waxy feathers, like ducks? They let the water simply roll off their backs, and down the river it goes.
The truth is, I’ll never understand this world, the people in it, or most of all, I don’t know if I’ll ever understand myself. And I try to self-assess, but the truth is, for me and for all of us? We never see ourselves as other people see us.
I just keep doing what is in front of me and try to make good choices. I think this is the very least we can do, and at the same time, maybe the most we can do.
And so we go. Trying to be the best version of ourselves that we can be.
Whatever that might be.
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“The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt with the heart”
― Helen Keller
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“My feelings are too loud for words and too shy for the world.”
― Dejan Stojanovic
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“Is it really possible to tell someone else what one feels?”
― Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina
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The getting of our feelings. Any way.
