“In our culture, we associate vulnerability
with emotions we want to avoid such as fear, shame, and uncertainty. Yet we too
often lose sight of the fact that vulnerability is also the birthplace of joy,
belonging, creativity, authenticity, and love.” I recently was
recommended this TED Talk and thought it was very interesting. It's
called The Power of Vulnerability and I've heard that there are two parts but I
haven't watched it yet.
Here’s some of my
favorite quotes.
Those who are well connected in life "fully
embraced vulnerability. They believed that what made them vulnerable made
them beautiful. They didn't talk about vulnerability being comfortable,
nor did they really talk about it being excruciating. They just talked about it being
necessary. They talked about the willingness to say, "I love
you" first, the willingness to do something where there are no guarantees,
the willingness to breathe through waiting for the doctor to call after your
mammogram. They're willing to invest in a relationship that may or may
not work out."
"To let ourselves be
seen, deeply seen, vulnerably seen; to love with our whole hearts, even though
there's no guarantee -- and that's really hard, and I can tell you as a parent,
that's excruciatingly difficult -- to practice gratitude and joy in those
moments of terror, when we're wondering, "Can I love you this much?
Can I believe in this this passionately? Can I be this fierce about this?"
just to be able to stop and, instead of catastrophizing what might happen, to
say, "I'm just so grateful, because to feel this vulnerable means I'm
alive."
I'd be interested in hearing some of your thoughts.
Update on 5/21/14
Check out this blogpost for a Letter-Day Saint's perspective on this concept of vulnerability.
http://meridithwrites.blogspot.com/2013/02/gods-godness.html?m=1
Update on 5/21/14
Check out this blogpost for a Letter-Day Saint's perspective on this concept of vulnerability.
http://meridithwrites.blogspot.com/2013/02/gods-godness.html?m=1
