Self-Acceptance

 Wherever You Go, There You Are    John Kabat-Zinn

I’d like to have the inner strength (and the arms) of Michelle Obama, the grace of Simone Biles, the compassion and tenacity of Eleanor Roosevelt, the poetic strength of Maya Angelou, the confidence of Verushka. Can I accept the facts that unlike Michelle and Simone, I don’t exercise my body or have a natural grace to build upon? Can I accept that I don’t exercise the self-discipline of Eleanor or Maya, or that I don’t have the positive body image of Verushka?

I am what I am - chronically overweight and under-toned, scratching at the door of self-discipline. I fall short of my ideals and my goals. I procrastinate, I avoid challenges, and I can get lost in my failures.

I am also aware that I have been given this existence, and I get to make the choices about it that enhance or diminish the experience. I do both, all the time - this is the school of life. What I’m learning, thanks a great deal to the 12 Steps, is to see who I am, where I am, and what I do to lean more to the enhancement, and less to the diminishing of this time I have.

Self-acceptance is my key to growth. I’m a Sandy seed, not a Michelle, Simone, Eleanor, Maya, or Verushka seed. As I work my program daily, I am sprouting into something beautifully unique and wondrous. 

I am fully me, flowering, fruiting, and being pruned as necessary in this Garden of Life.

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