Are we onions?

How easy is it to become an onion? Over our lifetime, as we grow, we accumulate roles, like the outer layers of an onion. We become a friend, a graduate, an employee, a partner, a parent, a mentor, a student, a coach, a grandparent and a myriad of other roles. It begins innocently enough and surely before too long, we have amassed many layers. Some will develop a thick outer skin, not so much in a binding sense but rather as a protection; if the outer layer looks like it is keeping every other layer together in a nicely compacted little package, then maybe that might just work. Others at some point will begin to find the layers suffocating and need to peel back a few so they don’t start spoiling in the middle. What happens if we peel back them all? Will we eventually reach the core; the centre of who we are? Will the taste be palatable? Be still for a minute. Think about what your onion is like. Do you even know how many layers there are? Do you dare to start unwrapping it, layer by layer? How easily we have reached this maturity, where we are at right now at this moment in time and lost sight of our core. It is an amazing process, going on a discovery by shedding the layers, bit by bit revealing a little more of ourselves; of who we truly are at our very interior. What we unearth may be both pleasant and also confronting; especially the latter if we have been hiding behind these layers to conceal our real selves. The ultimate accomplishment is reaching the centre, the core and realising we have served our purpose of being an onion and now is the time to celebrate as you are welcomed back to life, back to breathing freely, back to being the grandest of all prizes – being you.