Better an authentic frown than a faux smile any day...

I am always surprised when friends apologize for being in a bad mood, or sharing their life challenges when I bump into them, as though there is something wrong with sharing our difficulties with each other. This is yet another example of the bullshit positivity world we have created in western life, where we are only accetable to each other if we share good news. I wonder if we have communicated the message that someone else's bad news is acceptable because we are trying to bypass our own difficulties. Whatever it is, that has to stop. We aren't going to co-create a genuinely positve world until we can hodl the space for each other's shadow. Better an authentic frown than an inauthentic smile any day. A smile that is built on a pretentious foundation isn't a smile at all. - Jeff Brown, An Uncommon Bond