Truthiness

Every year, Miriam Webster, the dictionary publisher, chooses a "word of the year" based on their on-line survey. This year's word is "Truthiness." Apparently Comedy Central satirist Stephen Colbert first used the word, which he defined as "truth that comes from the gut, not books."

Isn't that what recovery is all about, truthiness? My entire childhood I lived in fantasy. I read books to escape the reality of what I believed was a boring life. I waited to escape away from Phoenix to someplace exciting. My teen years I lived a crazy, exciting life so much so that I longed to be back in Phoenix sometimes. I read like a fiend even while I was strung out, a way to escape, I guess. Truth, to me, was an inconvenient dead-end.

Today, I'm trying to live my life authentically. This may mean taking risks. I know it no longer means I can hide out in corporate America pretending that I'm just like everyone else. I'm not, but neither am I terminally unique today like I was when I got here. Yes, I have a past, and special gifts that go with that past, and a need, no, a requirement to use them to help others. I just don't know yet where all that will lead yet.

I don't need to know. All I need to do is keep discovering then living my truth. Just for today, I'm going to act with truthiness.