The Coat

Do you ever feel as if you've taken off the coat that is who you really are and hung it up in the closet, and taken out a different coat and worn it so you can become someone else - just to get through a day? Or a week? Or a year? But you know the entire time that it's not you and that you are, at the moment, a fraud. It may look like your coat, but no one can tell but you that it doesn't fit quite right. Meanwhile your own coat is hanging, unused, and you're afraid you'll never go back to retrieve it. And that if you ever do, it may not even fit anymore.  Or you won't remember how to put it on. And you worry because you start getting used to the feel of this other coat. It might even be becoming comfortable. And you begin to forget about that other coat- it's just so much easier to keep wearing this one; everyone is used to seeing you in it. But every once in a while you have a flash of memory of the old coat, how it kept you warm and fit so well. And you wonder how much longer you will be able to convince everyone, including yourself, that this coat isn't stolen. That it's yours. That this is you. And the thing that terrifies you most, no matter how much you pine for that old coat, is what people will think if you go retrieve it and wear it again. Will they be angry that you stole the other coat? Will they feel foolish because they believed that it was yours? Or will the people who love you just be relieved  that you have put on the old coat, because they're starting to remember it now, and, really, they just want you to be comfortable. You know, because they love you, and they've been trying for the longest time to tell you nicely that that coat you've been wearing lately? Just doesn't suit you.  And they miss the old one. And what do you know, if you'd look in the mirror once in a while, so, in fact, do you.