Cracking that outer shell!

I'm on a journey - surprise! You all know I'm a person who tends to over analyze, over inspect, over talk about every little detail of my life. Sorry - how I am and how I deal with stuff. Anyway, recent events and changes in my life have caused me once again to pause and evaluate, dig in, see what things are in my control and what things are not, to try to effect some real changes in how my life is progressing. So this morning I read something that I found to be an interesting analogy and thought I would share it with all of you (all of you - ha! Like anyone but me is reading this!). Anyway, the story takes place years ago and is about a statue that needs to be moved. As the workers are attempting to move this huge thing, one person notices a crack. They stop to investigate, taking a chisel and breaking away part of where the crack is, only to find that the entire statue is covered in dried clay. Apparently, in preparation and anticipation of an enemy attack, these people had made an "outer shell" to protect that statue, which, upon further inspection and demolition of the outer shell, proved to be solid gold. The article I was reading, of course, drew this visual to remind us all that we tend to build an outer shell to protect our insides - our emotions, feelings, etc. - that have heretofore been hurt (or in some cases actually demolished) by people or events in our lives. The challenge? Take a risk, begin chipping away at whatever outer shell you have built to keep hurt out and let that beautiful "gold" person on the inside shine through!