Vulnerability

What does it really mean to be emotionally vulnerable? The dictionary defines it as:

–adjective
1.
capable of or susceptible to being wounded or hurt, as by a weapon: a vulnerable part of the body.
2.
open to moral attack, criticism, temptation, etc.: an argument vulnerable to refutation; He is vulnerable to bribery.

But what is it really in terms of being vulnerable to another person? Especially when you are trying to forge a relationship, intimate or otherwise.

I fell deeply in love once, for a very long time even. So long and so deeply that I am still there. I gave that person my heart, my soul and everything else. It sounds cliche. I allowed myself to be completely vulnerable. And to this day it still makes me smile because I found the truth of that relationship by not fearing love, but embracing it in whatever form it could be given.

Yes, it means that you are exposed to the truth because it is real and that may at times feel like an attack on your being. The pure everyday joys are blissfully real and the sweet pain, if inflicted, will run to the bone. But it is real...it is honest...and I cherish it still for what it was and still is. It is the rock that can shelter you in any storm.

What reason is there to be in any relationship if you cannot be honest? If you cannot be emotionally vulnerable to those very people that you are choosing to be in your circle? Will you get hurt at times? Of course, eventually it happens because life is not about perfection, but perfect imperfections. But wounds will heal, the scar from the infliction fades just enough to remind you of the lesson and growth you gained in that state of vulnerability. It is your witness.

I don't have any room in my life for falsehood. I don't need people within my inner circle that are scared to be vulnerable to me. If I am willing to take off my everyday armor to stand next to you, then you should be willing to take off yours because we are not at battle. Any wound we inflict will be during the gentle play of testing one another for the real battles that exist in the world. But my friends, my family and those I choose to draw near...if you can't show me your truth, then I cannot learn from you - only of your falseness and in that there is nothing to be gained for either of us.

We are a society of weak and scared little children, no matter what our age. We wishfully dream of all the things that we think will make us happy without being willing to do the work. What separates us from one another might be as simple as telling each other how we really feel without apologies. It isn't that we are out to hurt one another with our truth, but yes there will be times when it shall bruise the best of friends. You cannot protect me, just as I cannot protect you.

The armor that protects you is worn simply by being true to yourself and then those around you. I know from living it that you can find a great strength in being vulnerable to your emotions. Once you have stepped into those waters you will realize that they run deep and wide surrounding you with a pureness of knowing. That is where you will find me and that is where you have to be willing to go to know me. Otherwise, you will just pass in and out of my life because what I seek is simple Truth.

And if you think that I am hiding behind my armor now, then it is because you so fiercely wear yours and have failed to lay down both what you deem will protect you and the weapons you feel you must carry. None of that has a place in my life. I am on a different path where one must travel lightly and do no harm.