The fact is that just showing up is half the secret to success.
You are loved whether rotting in a jail cell or serving coffee and meals to the homeless on a street corner out of the back of your van.
You need to find a way to love yourself. A simple daily mantra looking in the mirror can be transformative. Speak the language of love and forgiveness and witness the subtle changes over time on your face in your heart and in your self-talk.
There will always be someone more beautiful or wealthy or wise but there is no one just like you, learning very special lessons all your own to offer up your talents to the world.
Acknowledge your past infractions, make atonement and move past it.
What else is there? To wallow in self-deprecating thoughts or come to the realization that everyone has secret failings or deep sorrows. You have not truly lived if you don’t. Playing it safe is not truly living. Risk is inherent.
The mother who blames herself for repeated miscarriages or the military vet who keeps reliving the atrocities he took part in fighting a senseless war or the doctor who did not see the child in the crosswalk at night, in a driving rain and took an innocent life with her car.
All debilitating and unforgivable if one lets unfortunate circumstances define an entire life. The key is how to accept you failed at being your very best for an instant or a few days or a call of duty.
Understanding our fragility in the face of disappointment or destructive behaviors can help us untangle our worst fears by letting the pain of our transgressions go and offering them up to a higher power.
There is no way to hold on to the pain of our past and heal without the blessing of time and self-forgiveness.
There is no way to hold on to the pain of our past …and heal …without the blessing of time and self-forgiveness.
Repeated to inform, to drive home, to rescue the broken heart and start to mend it. Don’t waste this precious earth walk lost in the haze of booze or mindless television programming or working so much you don’t have time to have a heartfelt talk with your kid or a friend.
This idea of showing up, for your sometimes messy imperfect life, allows others to stop worrying so much about you and live their own fractured and glorious lives.
We come together to heal and partake in all the misunderstandings of living. Let go and move into a space where you can do better and not hold on to regrets. It’s the only way.
