Tattoos
I’m not a big fan of tattoos, never have been. Well, that’s not completely true. When I was a boy, we would get transferable tattoos in our bubble gum wrappers and I would put them on my arm. Reminds me of a story . . .
I was on a cruise 23 years ago and was doing a workout in the gym. The guy working out next to me had a large tattoo on his arm. So, I asked him what his mother said when he arrived home with it. He said, “She didn’t say anything but my father went nuts and told me, in Italian, to ‘wash it off’.”
Tattoo removal is becoming a big business designed to erase youthful indiscretions and lovers that weren’t as indelible as the ink.
The Grasshopper gave me some perspective on tattoos. He said,
“The personality is a tattoo that covers your original self. The biggest misconception being bought into is that it’s not removable.”
We cover ourselves is metaphorical tattoos and define ourselves as the image we display. The truth is it’s only skin deep.
Our personality is a cover. It attempts to cover what we are missing. Even the most well adjusted people come to a point in their life where they sense something is missing. The biggest error we usually make at that time is to look for the missing piece outside of ourselves. It’s not at the tattoo parlor.
The missing piece is inside you, several layers down. To get there, you have to begin the process of removing layers to get to the real you. It’s like removing decades of wallpaper. Each layer represents something you added to cover up the feeling of missing something.
Some people are not ready for removal. They’re too busy to stop and notice the unsettling feeling of missing something within. When they do come to a halt, they will experience that sensation first hand. The temptation is to chase it away. That only has it come back another day.
If you’ve come to the point in life that you know something is missing, summon your bravery and stop diverting your attention from that which needs tending to. Allow yourself the freedom and opportunity to allow this empty feeling to have its day. Spend time with it. This sensation in your body will lead you, by the hand, down through the layers and into your deepest self.
How will you know when you get there? The empty feeling is replaced by the peace that passes all understanding. This peaceful you needs no barrier between you and the world.
You remove the tattoo that could never define you.
All the best,
John
http://cdbaby.com/cd/johnmorgan
http://www.cafepress.com/grasshoppernote/3580301
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