Honoring ourselves...

My thought today has to do with honoring ourselves. It's easy when the crowds are cheering, when are friends are congratulating us, or when we're honoring others by doing so. It's much harder when we upset those close to us, when we earn condemnation instead of respect, or when we go against our instincts to please others. Selfishness is hard! It's hard to stand up and voice our needs. Everyone thinks that selflessness is easy, but it's the cheap cheaters way out. It's easy to go through life appeasing people, telling them what they want to hear, and not speaking your truth. It's easy to go along with what others want. There is so much delicious distraction in immersing ourselves in the needs and wants of others. So much opportunity for martyrdom and blockage. We love drowning ourselves in others because it takes all responsibility off of ourselves. What if all our emotions, needs and wants, and even thoughts were all our responsibility. It's powerful but scary. It means taking responsibility for me. It means standing up for my needs, desires, and wants first. It means stepping on others' toes from time to time. After all, what I want may be in conflict with what they want. But.... It's not my job to be what they want me to be. I am responsible only for me. They are responsible for them. People will try and test this. They will subtly and cleverly try to subvert our will to what they want. We all are guilty of this to some point. We want others to change to make us feel better, we want circumstances and our surroundings to shift to give us relief. It is our job to find the relief and to change our view of others to shift how we feel. Tact is easy, backing down is easy, owning your power and truth is the true challenge in life. Poetry.

I am

That is all.

Nothing more,

Nothing less.