The Mask

Happy Halloween. Although the metaphor is rather trite, I feel that people often pretend to be something that they aren't. Sometimes it's to seem better than they are, more powerful, more in control or simply to hide what they are or what they feel. Everyone wears a costume on Halloween, but people wear masks almost every day.

Dealing with paralysis is hard, end of story. However, sometimes it seems better or easier to deal with. In reality, it's a struggle where there are rarely good days, only not bad days. I'm not sure about the rest of you, but there are times when I don't want people to know whether I'm sad, upset, angry or any other feeling. Those emotions are personal and it's our decision whether we allow other people in.

Countless numbers of times I find myself emanating happiness when, the truth is, I'm not happy at all. Sometimes I just don't know how to deal with the situation and the way I choose to deal with it is to put on a happy face so that people don't hassle me. It's probably not the healthiest way of dealing with my problems but my philosophy is that if I can't deal with my problems, nobody else will be able to.

This doesn't mean that I'm always lying about how I feel. Maybe I embellish a little but there's no harm in that. I suppose this week's message is to be honest with yourself. You can lie to everybody else, but you can't lie to yourself. Grab your problems and your emotions by the horn and face them head on. One thing I've learned is that if you're in a bad mood you have the ability to snap out of it. The famous line "don't worry, be happy," isn't just a really annoying song, it's actually sound advice.

For those of you who are going trick-or-treating, enjoy yourselves. Notice all the kids in their costumes of superheroes, famous athletes, mythical creatures and scary stuff and just think about what I've said. They idolize people or images they really don't know because it makes them feel powerful or athletic or scary. Sometimes, we do the same.