I love this article about the real and raw stories told in Angela Brooks-Rallins’ cabin. Coming out from behind yourself, into a conversation, and making it real is part of the search, whether born of panic or courage, for that highly personalized rapture of feeling completely yourself, happy in your own skin. And sometimes unhappy in your skin, but at least it’s your skin. It is a reach for authenticity — a process of individuation — when you cease to compare yourself to others and choose, instead, to live your life. It is an opportunity to raise the bar on the experience of your life. It is a deepening of integrity — when who you are and what you live are brought into alignment. No more tamping down your soul’s deepest longings in order to get approval from others. As author Andre Gide wrote, “It is better to be hated for what you are than to be loved for what you are not.” 

What surprises us is what a powerful attractor authenticity is. When we free our true selves, show up as ourselves, others realize it and respond in kind. It is as if we have set ourselves ablaze. Others are attracted to the warmth and add their logs to the fire. Before long, we’ve built a glorious bonfire around which to tell the stories that help us know and love each other. And then we can accomplish amazing things.

— Susan Scott