Everyone is a used car salesmen when it comes to ourselves.

I am full of bad choices and mistakes in my life; however, it doesn't make me any less valuable.

It took me years to figure that out. And even typing it - is hard . We judge others entirely differently than we judge ourselves . I see myself through my passion and my intentions and also through all the ways I've failed . It's a teeter totter of insanity where the balance is never quite level . I want to be more than my failures . I want to find a way remove them. I don't want to lose the lessons learned or the growth I gained from the experience - but rather peel away some of the scars .

Everyone is a used cars saleman when it comes to themselves. We have all been hurt. We are all selling broken pieces of a person. What is even more interesting are the people who hide themselves, or worse the people they are in a relationship with.  Everyone has chapters in their life they don't like and do not like to read out loud. We are human.

Life is too short for crappy relationships with people who do not value you.
Life is too short to be with people who are not proud to have you and love you how you need. Love is not earned . It must be freely and wholeheartedly given . Life is too dang short to tolerate anything less than love . I do not mean the easy stuff of love : the seeing the good in your significant other, the flowers and fancy. The real aspects of love where it gets hard . The phone calls and texts  that occur between midnight and 4 am ... The confessions of mistakes you can't undo and have no idea how you can look at yourself in the mirror . The questions where there are no simple answers . The people who hold you up literally and figuratively whether it's due to too much alcohol, loss, or things you'll never want to speak of again .

Everyone tries hard to present themselves to the world in a light that shows off the good they have left . We see ourselves from the inside . We see those scars . We see the broken and battered. We know how badly it hurts to smile and be dutiful in our jobs, family role, and the motions of living. We follow the rules given to us by people who don't see inside our heads. These outsiders who tell us the "appropriate" ways to handle things . We shy away from vulnerability for fear of being seen as weak. The major issue with this - love and joy can only be attained through being vulnerability.

Used car salesmen are selling a thing- a piece of machinery that can be insured and replaced if broken. Hearts are not machinery . They are not able to be replaced . If we break a heart it's more like a broken bone -  scars  form to try and cover the weakness but that spot will always be weak. It will always have a tenderness that can not be wholy removed . The scars remain .

I read some  place that to truly be vulnerable a person must present all the parts of themselves - confess their most weak and tender spots and then metaphorically hand  the other person a knife knowing the other person has the map to your most tender and vulnerable aspects of you .

To try and find love and openness - you have to stop selling a used car.
You are not replaceable . You are not a machine .
Draw the map to your most vulnerable and tender .
 Admit what you need .
And hand the knife to someone you  trust .
Close your eyes ...
And be vulnerable .