I accidentally forgot to wear makeup to work yesterday and instead of royally freaking out, I just shrugged my shoulders and said "oh well. I'm still sexy:-)" If this would have been two years ago...omg! I probably would have driven right home for my makeup bag. This is not to say that I don't care about my appearance, but that my self worth and confidence doesn't lie solely in the external anymore.
Self esteem used to be this soft and elusive thing, that I could never fully grasp, and my days were literally filled with "if only's." If only I were skinnier, taller, smarter, nicer, lighter-skinned, more reserved, more outgoing. The list went on and oooooooon. But, with every year, I care less about who I am to the world and find my identity more firmly staked in who I am to God. Yes!
“See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands” - Isaiah 49:16
Now, that's some heart-warming truth! For once, I'm starting to love myself and believe that I am truly worthy of love. It's a strange, new feeling, but I think that I wear it well:-)
Anyway, this beautiful piece below captures my sentiments exactly...
Enjoy, sweetie pies! And remember, love begins with you.
Love After Love
BY Dereck Walcott
The time will come, when with elation,
you will greet yourself arriving
at your own door, in your own mirror,
and each will smile at the other's welcome
and say, sit here.
Eat.
You will love again the stranger who was your self.
Give wine.
Give bread.
Give back your heart
to itself, to the stranger who has loved you.
all your life, whom you have ignored
for another, who knows you by heart.
Take down the love letters from the bookshelf,
the photographs, the desperate notes,
peel your own image from the mirror.
Sit.
Feast on your life.
"The acceptance of oneself is the essence of the whole moral problem and the epitome of a whole outlook on life. That I feed the hungry, that I forgive an insult, that I love my enemy in the name of Christ - all these are undoubtedly great virtues. What I do unto the least of my brethren, that I do unto Christ. But what if I should discover that the least amongst them all, the poorest of all the beggars, the most impudent of all the offenders, the very enemy himself - that these are within me, and that I myself stand in need of the alms of my own kindness - that I myself am the enemy who must be loved - what then? As a rule, the Christian's attitude is then reversed; there is no longer any question of love or long-suffering; we say to the brother within us "Raca," and condemn and rage against ourselves. We hide it from the world; we refuse to admit ever having met this least among the lowly in ourselves."
ReplyDelete~Carl Jung, 'Modern Man in Search of a Soul'
"that I myself am the enemy who must be loved"
ReplyDeleteseriously deep stuff!! thanks so much for sharing. I think I've just found the next book on my book list!!