Five Minute Fridays: Real

I'm joining the Gypsy Mama for her Five Minute Friday Challenges. We write because we love words and the relief it is to just write them without worrying if they’re just right or not. No editing, no back peddling. We take five minutes on Friday and write like we used to run when we were kids. On Fridays we write like we believe we can fly. Won’t you join us? Today's subject: Real

Facebook can make me lonely. 

It projects the perfect cyber residual image. On facebook everyone is happy, smiling, put together, out with friends, and living life in this careless way that I wish were always true. 

And pinterest? Ugh!  Sometimes just looking at it gives me life-envy. Things I wish I had, projects I wish I could do, time I wish I had. 

Instagram, blogs, social media in general. They all have this in common--this illusion of the way we live life (through vintage colored photographs no less) that isn't quite the truth. Sure, there's truth in there, but it's mixed with the need to fabricate an image. 

And we're steeped in it, the necessity to put on this air. This need to make our lives look perfect, and if you never unplug from the media onslaught, you can find yourself lamenting why you're life doesn't look like that. 

And that's exactly where I found myself last night. You're not good enough, creative enough, fun enough. Those lies crept in as I kept scrolling through and just as I was about to throw up my hands, I got a call from a good friend. And she was real with me about her struggles, about her life, about grief and loss and the deep places that are often covered up with smiles.

She reminded me that behind the status updates were people whose lives looked a lot like mine. Nobody's life looked like their social media pages.


Contemplating on that sweet reminder, I thanked God for good friends who aren't afraid to let you past the exterior walls. To cry, to laugh, to talk about the things that matter more than image. To acknowledge hurt and grief, to ask for sincere prayer, and to say "I'm not doing okay today."


I cherish those friends and keep them in my heart, and thank God that I have these relationships that remind me of all the things I tend to forget, and I pray daily for the courage to be vulnerable too because it's when we open up that we give others the permission to. 


To be transparent, to be authentic.


To be real.