SACRED CONTRACTS JOURNALING EXERCISE SERIES

PART 3 OF 8

WHAT MASKS DO WE WEAR?

We are tapping into our calling, our purpose, our joy in this SACRED CONTRACTS journal series.  It is inspired by Caroline Myss.  The journal series is  an experiment on my part, and I welcome you to join along.

Recall Part 1: Future and Present where we took time to look at where we would like to be, and where we are in this moment.

In Part 2: Where are your energy leaks? we focused on our body signals and biography makes biology.  

In this exercise, we look at how we make ourselves visible in the world.  As we address our passion, our calling- we must also address the roles we take on by wearing masks.

We Wear the Mask
Paul Laurence Dunbar, 1872 – 1906

We wear the mask that grins and lies,
It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes,—
This debt we pay to human guile;
With torn and bleeding hearts we smile
And mouth with myriad subtleties,

Why should the world be over-wise,
In counting all our tears and sighs?
Nay, let them only see us, while
We wear the mask.

We smile, but oh great Christ, our cries
To thee from tortured souls arise.
We sing, but oh the clay is vile
Beneath our feet, and long the mile,
But let the world dream otherwise,
We wear the mask!

Mask- a covering, a disguise, to prevent, to protect, to conceal, to filter, a pretence, a reflection, a performance, a transformation…

Journal as you contemplate the following questions:

What masks do we wear?

Why do we wear them?

When?

What appearance do we portray to others?

To ourselves?

Do we wear masks to hide what’s actually going on underneath?

Do we wear masks of persona to protect ourselves from judgement?

To maintain a semblance of control in the chaos of life?

Do we wear one mask, or many different masks or many layers of masks?

When do we fully remove our masks?

When are we safe to do so?

Do we create our own masks or are we born with a pre-determined set?

Or does someone else help us make them?

Are masks an avoidance of showing who we really are?

Do masks allow us to approach?

To hide?

Or are they armour?

An adornment?

It’s interesting that despite the masks- the eyes are exposed. Can we truly ever fully hide who we are? Fully deny that we want to be seen?

The crudest curriculum vitae crows and flaps its wings in a style peculiar to the undersigner. I doubt whether you can even give your telephone number without giving something of yourself. —Nabokov, Nikolai Gogol