Dear Reader:

Of all God’s creatures here on earth, man is the only one who berates himself for mistakes, self-perceived or not, and becomes easily his own worst enemy on many occasions.

• It was Walt Kelly who came up with the famous quote “We have met the enemy and it is us” for the first Earth Day in 1970. He depicted Pogo the Possum with a stick and a bag looking at what man had done to his home in the swamp.

As stewards of God I think all of us can take some responsibility in not fighting hard enough to preserve and care for this wonderful home God provided for us.

But today the issue of being kind to ourselves is more intrinsic. Too many of us have a tendency to be nicer to others than we are to ourselves. We let our goal of  “perfectionism” limit our ability to accept ourselves as we really are….human beings with strengths and weaknesses.

I know I am guilty of this….berating myself for something I said or should have said or an action I later was embarrassed about doing. It is one of the things that keep us up at night. Instead of just admitting, “I screwed up…I feel badly, and I hope I learned a lesson from this episode,” and then closing the chapter in the book…we have a tendency to keep chewing on the incident like a dog with an old bone.

Why do we do that? ….Even in our legal court system…double jeopardy prevails over being tried for the same crime. Yet we put ourselves on trial for the same mistake…over and over and over. I think the word I am looking for …is that many of us are borderline masochists. We must derive some kind of pleasure from mentally bringing up a past memory that should have been buried years before.

When God forgives us….He moves on….why can’t we?

Do we think if we are too easy on ourselves we will get a “big head” or something…it’s not going to happen and penance should have a time restriction on it if we keep punishing ourselves over and over. We lost so much of the joy of life needlessly.

We can be there for a friend in need, indeed, so why is it so hard to console ourselves, forgive ourselves, and then “let it go!” (And no I am NOT going to provide an u-tube link to that song from Disney….I have heard it ad nauseaum, off-key, from two of the four grandchildren too many times to count and there should be a time limit on that song too.)

Yesterday my Iphone never stopped beeping to tell me that new emails and texts were coming in. You would have thought that I won the “Miss America” contest-or perhaps “Miss Sassy Senior” of the Year.

Instead all of you were calling, texting, emailing to let me know I was in your thoughts and prayers. I felt completely cocooned in love and since I believe in love and its magical power…I believe in the possibility of a fulfilling life adapted to whatever the outcome.

Thank you all for being there for me and making me feel like ‘queen for the day.’

So until tomorrow…Please do one more thing for me: “Be kind to yourself today, just be plain nice to yourself? Okay?”

*….If you are only half as nice or kind to yourself as you have been for me….then each of you are the most amazing kind-hearted soul God created. You have all brought sunshine into my life when I needed it. (Thanks Libby for the picture…sums it up perfectly.)

“Today is my FAVORITE DAY…I mean my really FAVORITE DAY!” (Winnie the Pooh)

Be prepared to say “Rabbit” tomorrow….I sure am…need that extra good mojo for sure! I bet Rutledge and Lachlan are going to say Rabbit….Happy Go-Lucky Bro’s.