What matters to you about how you are perceived?  I've often said, "Perception is everything, reality is nothing" which means it doesn't matter what you really are inside, it matters what people think of you.  Of course this is something you can apply in other areas such as it doesn't matter what people see, it matters what they think.

Does it matter to you what people think?  I used to think not, but in today's modern world, what people think is paramount in your life.  I suppose today's modern world may not be so different than any other point in time though...   After all hermits become what they are to escape what people think of them.  So if you want to avoid being judged, some of us pull back and try to pull away from the world around us. 

I've learned a lot from my saying "Perception is everything, reality is nothing."  It's kept me deftly aware of the things I do.  Look we all want to live and let live, but life is for the living.  You can't avoid being thought of one way or another.   On a whole we accept who we are for what we are and learn to look in the mirror and be happy with what we see.   But one day it hits you.   You think about how you are living and you decide... is it time I take the long way home?

Sooner or later, some of us take a cold hard look in the mirror and see what others see in us.    It's time to pay the price for perception. 

I'll write more on this article later.  But for now, be aware my dear reader.  Sometimes reality is smacking you in the face and your perception of reality is about to be turned upside down.  If you are an artist or have an artisans mind about you, you may grasp this thought better.  And don't think that sitting at a desk all day doesn't mean you don't have the mind about you.  And of us can have that edge.   Isn't it strange that under the surface is what counts? If that is true then, is reality everything and perception nothing?