Dear Reader:

It has taken me a good chunk of my life to love myself but I am finally there. I can finally look in a mirror that once represented all my vulnerabilities for far too long … and now greet my best friend each morning with a smile… me, myself and I.

I don’t know how many times I was told, starting with my mother, that we must first love ourselves before we can love another. Easier said than done…right?

So much of my youth was spent hating so much about myself- I wanted long straight thick hair, I got thin wavy hair, I wanted a pretty smile but got buck teeth ( until I had almost graduated from high school) I wanted to be tall… I was short and skinny. I wanted to be anyone but me.

Time is the great healer in youth… braces bring pretty smiles, curlers added thickness and smoothness to wavy hair, and gawky skinny female kids slowly change into petite figures.

But what it took me another decade or so to discover… was that these external factors were not the real me and couldn’t be corrected with braces but only self-acceptance of the person inside me.

I also came to realize that when I showed compassion to others… I felt a tremendous sense of meaning, purpose, and joy in my life. Teaching taught me this!

I love the poet, Mary Oliver. She says in poetry what the rest of us struggle with in word definitions.

( ” To Begin with the Sweetgrass)

… ” And I have become the child of the clouds, and of hope. I have become the friend of the enemy, whoever that is. I have become older and, cherishing what I have learned, I have become younger. And what do I risk to tell you this, which is all I know? Love yourself. Then forget it. Then, love the world.”

So until tomorrow…As you meet each moment, ask yourself ” What is the kindest thing I can do right now?” Follow the path of compassion ( Kate Wolfe-Jenson)

” Today is my favorite day” Winnie the Pooh

And my favorite day yesterday brought the family together to watch Eloise dance in her first dance recital inside the Galliard Auditorium. ( Actually she hopped a lot-they were frogs but still she was the best hopper out there! )

She loved the flowers Boo gave her and before it was over …she was surrounded by beautiful flowers the family members gave her!