Honestly Honest

So I have been pondering for the past few weeks what, if anything, I should write as a wrap up to my last year's focus word of honesty. It was my first year doing 'one word' and I truly enjoyed that experience. I decided to do it again and I have told many others about it. I feel it really did help me focus on one thing that was important to me in a way that resolutions and goals never have. It was an interesting journey, to say the least, but I find myself at a loss  about how to tell it with any amount of success.

My word was honesty and I think for me the biggest part of my journey has been learning what this word means. I thought the year would be about me being honest, but instead it was facing what it means to be honest. What it means to be honest in different contexts and to different people. This year I have been faced with issues and ideas that have really stretched me, in good and bad ways, and they have made me realize that honesty is honestly not always simple.

Where I work certain things are acceptable and others are not. Most of these things are right on target with my personal beliefs so this is a blessing. Occasionally, though, they are not. Occasionally what I think and what the corporate belief is are not the same. What does honesty mean in that situation?

My parents and I have similar differences of opinions about things. They are always open to my views and to discussions about them, but I have no desire to hurt them or to cause them discomfort for my own sake.

Is that dishonest? If I back down for the sake of my job or for the sake of respect for others? Sometimes I think it is. Maybe always it is, but sometimes it is worth it. That is the journey that I have been taking with honesty, though, and I am still on that journey. My year is over but my searching for answers is not. I have faced with honesty that this is an issue in my life. Maybe that is the most honest I can be.