This week I’ve spent in the presence of great friends, the kind that love you even when you have a dime-sized scab on the side of the nose, the kind that hug you when you have morning breath and call you beautiful even when you feel like less than dirt.

It is amazing how life forces you at some point to be really, really authentic, even if you don’t want to be. As I wrote in a recent post, we all carefully place masks over our true feelings for the name of social grace or convenience. But there comes a time when those masks no longer serve us. Good friends tell you it is time to be real. I mean really real.

Being authentic can be scary, especially if you have kept your true self neatly tucked away in a corner for no one to see for fear of rejection, ridicule or, at worst, expulsion from the city walls. But as I begin to reveal my true self more and more, I am finding a level of personal power I’ve never felt in my entire life. It is as if our souls are crying out for us to say the truth once and for all.

If you struggle with authenticity, you are not alone. It is not easy to change your ways. It is not easy for any of us. But I promise you this: if you show your true self, those good friends that love you anyway will be there for you. Those who don’t can take a long walk off a short pier.

And that’s the truth, Ruth.