The Layers of Me: Don't Cut Me The Wrong Way

People's layer's have long been associated with onions. Mainly because if you cut them them the wrong way they can burn and sting your eyes, make you cry. Well as our layers are revealed we too can cry when someone damages one of those layers.

“Life is like an onion; you peel it off one layer at a time, and sometimes you weep.” ~ Carl Sandburg

Trust, Love, Loyalty: Layers of the Onion

An onion has many layers, the outer protective “skin” and then the inner layers down to the core. While we all know cutting an onion can make you cry, and we have tried many tricks to avoid that. But that is why the layers of onions is often attributed to people, their personalities and emotions. Essentially, we are all just onions and that is why some make you cry when you reveal or “cut” the layers, and some don’t. Science says no two onions are alike and whether an onion makes you cry or not is based on the soil and growing conditions. I suppose that too is much like humans when you reveal our layers.

Growth into Layers

Like an onion we grow from our roots, deep in the soil of our family heritage. Part of that heritage is our family dynamics, such as the way or process in which we are raised. That develops our layers as we learn, develop and grow. Sometimes we have rich soil and develop our layers without irritating effects. Then there are some who no matter what their soil doesn’t provide the nutrients and their layers are very irritating and can cause eyes to water. As we continue to grow and add layers the pungent smell is masked by the outer skin that can be flaky, break off or sometimes very difficult to peel. We each identify with our own levels of layers based on what was defining in our lives. For me my layers go as follows from outside into the core.

Layer of Trust

My outer most layer is one of trust. I hold trust first and foremost in everything I do. I am a firm believer in trust until you have a reason not to. So, when you break through my skin there are no tears just a beautiful layer of trust. I extend it out even when I have been warned not too, because I believe that every person has a reason behind what they say or do. Sometimes, when people say that someone was not trustworthy there may be more to the story and then again, they may be spot on. But who am I to judge for what occurred between other people? Yes, this has caused me quite some grief and I have been told I am to soft, too nice and need to be less trusting. But that is not who I am, oddly enough considering I was never raised where everything in my life was trusted. I suppose that is part of my core, being nice and trusting. Which is why I out trust as my first layer, because in order to get to the other layers you must not damage the trust layer. Though there are times when the trust layer was removed, and the next layer was exposed that caused my trust layer to decompose and cause very irritating emotions that pushed people away.

Love Layer

This is my most favorite layer, because I think sharing and spreading love is essential to human growth. I was never subjected to love much growing up which is why I am enamored by it. I believe in loving most all people, bring on the trust part, and sharing love with people who truly need it. Once I know I can trust you or believe I can trust you I let my love shine through. Love becomes a shining light that is given in many forms from deep love to a caring honest love as in friendships. I truly believe this layer can be very irritating if damaged because it is closer to my core beliefs. Once you have damaged this layer you have lost my trust layer and will never see anything beyond, meaning you will never see my core of who I am. I protect my core so deeply very few have gotten there. I guess I remain mysterious just like an onion, how it can taste so good but irritate the crap out of you at the same time. So, point to be made, never damage my love layer, all things stop there.

Layer on the Loyalty

My final major layer is loyalty. Once you have gotten my trust and love you can be certain that I will always remain loyal to you no matter what. While I am a loyal person in general, it does come with thought, experience and situations. But when I devote my trust and love in you, I will always stand by you with loyalty like a dog is to man. No matter what is done I will remain loyal until of course my life is in danger. I truly believe loyalty is a lost art. I call it an art because it truly takes thought, dedication and skill to create such a beautiful feeling and emotion. It takes trust and love as well to make sure your loyalty is pure. So, this layer is the one that protects my core because while I am loyal to a degree once you expose this layer my loyalty goes on even when our relationship doesn’t. But if you irritate this layer you have also damaged the trust and love layers resulting in a very pungent irritating event that will cause many to cry. I will lose that loyalty because you have damaged the house it was built on. When the protection of your core is damaged it is useless and will release defenses such as irritants just like an onion does and is why it makes you cry when you cut it improperly.

Careful How You Cut

There are many ways to cut an onion and sometimes no matter what it will make you cry. If you cut it properly and you still tear up, yet you can still cook it into an aromatic scent that will accent any dish. That is much the same as exposing a person’s layers, there may be tears because so much emotion is put into each layer, but they are good tears and good emotions follow. Where are is you cut an onion wrong the irritants stop you from getting to the next layer. So be careful how you cut an onion. Because when you expose the layers of someone, and you damage that you can’t quite put it back together. I tend to trust and offer my hand even when I myself am in need. That is my trusting love side. I only ever extend my loyalty after I know my love and trust is reciprocated. Many can argue the trueness to my feelings in this case but that is fine, it is something I certainly do not need to explain. I do not do things out of a distrustful manner and never seek to harm someone willingly. I am not pure and have harmed people unintentionally and that has helped me reshape my core to understand why and how to prevent it in the future. But some onions are bad ones, no matter what they smell, burn and rot. Those are the ones you need to watch out for. Because they are the ones who layers are of deceit, harm and self-righteousness. Even though I extend a helping hand to those types, I do it with caution. I listen to my gut intuition and try to still do my best. Sometimes, my good intention prevails, and I wind up losing all trust for an individual. I can say once you damage my trust layer you are done, out and never will be allowed near my life again. I have cut off friends and relationships that made it through my layers to my core. I wish I could share something with those people, how others see them. They are so lost in their own ways that they don’t realize the damage they do, the turmoil they create and like to cry about it like a rotting onion. So, lesson here is remembering we are all onions created from different soils and some of really have no good intentions and only want what’s good for them at the cost of anyone willing to give it to them. So be careful who let near your core and when pay attention when one of your layers is damaged by someone.