Unguarded Strength

Maybe too much reading is making me mad, but I reckon what a way to go.
There was something I read this morning and it really made me think.   “It is people’s strengths that tend to trip them up and not their weaknesses.”  And also “Unguarded strength is double weakness.”  I do not know about the double.  It could be 1 and 7/8 or 2 and a quarter.
Whatever it is though I reckon there is a measure of truth in that.  I thought of a number of people that seemed to have the world at their feet and blew it.  In every case considered a person came unstuck because a strength hid a weakness that refused to lie down. 
For a time exposure seemed far off, but with each passing day it drew closer.  That happens with what is unguarded and undealt with.  
Some it seems spend their whole life keeping a secret secret.  With some it is what you see is what you get.  For others it is like “what just happened here?”  I admit when I hear some say they are sorry, I wonder if they are sorry for what they did or for being caught.  But the point for me is not a matter of gloating, but of learning from mistakes and attempting to not make the same ones.
It really could be me.  I had no control over who I was born to.  Even with a great upbringing I have made some stupid mistakes.  Things I wish I had never done.  But for me it is being truly sorry for it and getting up again.
Acknowledged mistakes I tend to offer support to.  Continued willful foolishness I have a problem with.  For me that only becomes obvious down the track.  Initially I try to give everyone the benefit of the doubt.  If there is evidence to the contrary though can be another story.
I have seen and am one who has gone off the track, acknowledged it, been truly sorry to the point of not wanting to repeat it, and come good.
Things take time.  A wound does not heal overnight.  I have had cancers cut out.  The healing process involves pain, but it is for the good.  Left untended it does not bear thinking about.
I may appear strong, but my strength will only ever mask my flaws if left undealt with.