Tag Archives: true

The Princess and the Mask

Once upon a time, in a kingdom far far away, there lived a princess who wanted to be just like all the other princesses.  She tried to dress like them.  She tried to walk and talk like them.  She wore a mask so that nobody could see her true colors.  At first she felt like her efforts worked.  As the years went by, it grew more and more exhausting to keep up with all the other princesses.  One day while trying to keep up, she stumbled and fell into a puddle.  Her gown tore, her mask was soggy, and she cried.  She cried, and cried, and cried.

 As she cried, she removed the heavy mask and looked up.  For the first time, she could see clearly.  She saw that all the princesses were wearing masks.  Without the mask, the sun warmed her face, and the breeze dried her tears.  Without the mask, she could breathe and felt free.

Without the mask she was beautiful.

photo of me holding up 4 fingers

Word of the Week – Authentic

I sat down to write this blog Monday morning as the light bulb lit up for more creative ideas on reaching my goal of 75 blogs in 75 days.  I’m a little behind, so in my attempts on catching up and staying, “Authentic,” I’ve decided to start each week off with a vocabulary word.

A is for Authentic.

Merriam Webster defines, “Authentic,” as being exactly as appears or as claimed.

Synonyms; bona fide, certiviable, certified, dinkum, acht, genuine, honest, pukka, real, right, sure enough, and true.

Antonyms; bogus, counterfeit, fake, false, phony, pseudo, sham, spurious, suppositious, supposititious, unauthentic, and unreal.

I define, “Authentic,” as staying true, true to oneself, true to the cause, true to the experience, true to the emotion, and true to others.

I feel as if I am more authentic to myself and to others when I have my long white cane with me.  The cane is not an identifier to the world that I am blind, however it shows the truth that I used to hide for so many years.  I am proud of my blindness, proud of my cane, proud to have a daughter who is learning that blindness isn’t what defines us, but merely one of our super powers that we can choose to tap into to succeed and shine.

Marley, me, and our canes at Spring Mountain Ranch State Park on her birthday adventure hike

How do you define, “Authentic?”