{"id":1428,"date":"2021-02-21T07:19:00","date_gmt":"2021-02-21T13:19:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rglongpre.ca\/naturism\/?p=1428"},"modified":"2025-11-15T07:29:37","modified_gmt":"2025-11-15T13:29:37","slug":"who-am-i-really","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rglongpre.ca\/naturism\/who-am-i-really\/","title":{"rendered":"Who Am I, Really?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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It\u2019s Sunday morning and the weather is pleasant with a bit of sunshine, a breeze of 14km\/h, and a temperature of -9. For the first time in a month, I felt like going outside for another photo which I bring to you here. Obviously, I could have taken a few extra moments to have my hair tidy, but it just didn\u2019t seem all that important. Sometimes it doesn\u2019t matter if one lets one\u2019s hair down and allows for a less-than-perfect presentation. After all, who really cares? It\u2019s not like I need to make a good impression as far as my appearance is concerned. I am not looking to capture someone\u2019s attention in order to perhaps have a relationship. I mean, who would ever be interested in a 71 year old man living in a northern climate, especially one who is introverted and not the most attentive to social conventions?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My photos are a record, a personal record that portrays my presence on the planet without camouflage. Through the process of taking these photos on a regular basis, I am confronted with the reality of my body. Over time, that reality becomes accepted. There is no way for me to be taller, younger, dark-haired, or more attractive \u2013 whatever that might mean. This is who I am and I better get used to it. There are things that I have learned in the process. Eating properly and getting some exercise are first on the list. This is the only body I have, so I may as well take care of it so that I can enjoy to best degree possible, the years that remain to me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is one benefit that comes with living during a pandemic for either an extrovert or an introvert \u2013 time alone. Continuing on with my look at Who Am I, Really? which I began in the last post, I found: \u201c\u2026 being alone. Interesting things happen to me when I\u2019m by myself. Or rather they happen in me; I just listen. Things also happen in me when I\u2019m with other people, only I don\u2019t hear them as well because of the noise<\/em>.\u201d [Daryl Sharp, Who Am I Really, p. 16]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, what happens within oneself when one just listens? The first thought that comes to mind, born out of years of experience with meditation is monkey mind. The chatter is enough to drive one crazy until one learns to stop listening to the chatter of one\u2019s mind that is trying to distract the ego from hearing from one\u2019s depths. Whoever one is, it is there in the depths, buried under every conceivable mask, mirror, and distraction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beneath all the noise, I catch glimpses of a Robert that isn\u2019t a retired educator or a quasi-shaman elder. That Robert is more of a presence than a being \u2026 ageless. Okay, so how does this help me or you know who we really are? Honestly? Perhaps it can only tell us what we aren\u2019t. I was a teacher in a public school system. I am not that person anymore \u2013 or I should say that I am no longer defined and hidden behind that persona, that role. The same goes for you. Each of the roles, each of the persona that we discover, experience and let go teach us something about our nature, positive or negative.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I want to return to something else that Daryl Sharp wrote: \u201c\u2026 the general understanding of personality is too superficial. What you see is not all you get. What you see is persona. What\u2019s behind that \u2013 our shadow, things about ourselves we don\u2019t know or wouldn\u2019t show to others even if we did \u2013 is anybody\u2019s guess<\/em>.\u201d [p.27]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When you think about it, getting nude is only the beginning. Daring to look deeper without self-serving filters to learn that we are a complex, swirling collection of good and evil, of saint and sinner \u2013 that is the ego-deflating risk that needs to be taken of we are ever to really know oneself.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s Sunday morning and the weather is pleasant with a bit of sunshine, a breeze of 14km\/h, and a temperature of -9. For the first time in a month, I felt like going outside for another photo which I bring … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1428","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rglongpre.ca\/naturism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1428","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rglongpre.ca\/naturism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rglongpre.ca\/naturism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rglongpre.ca\/naturism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rglongpre.ca\/naturism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1428"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/rglongpre.ca\/naturism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1428\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1434,"href":"https:\/\/rglongpre.ca\/naturism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1428\/revisions\/1434"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rglongpre.ca\/naturism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1428"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rglongpre.ca\/naturism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1428"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rglongpre.ca\/naturism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1428"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}