Yesterday, we explored our struggle to quiet the negative, accusing voices that keep us bound in the past, anxious of the future - forever tossed like debris in the wind of a busy mind.
Today, I picked up a book given to me by a friend in 1995, when I was newly divorced. Sarah Ban Breathnach's words from the
March 13 entry of Simple Abundance had new meaning today.
"Today, we make peace with the past: with the bodies and faces we were born with and those that have evolved. Today, we embrace the lines that stare back at us, the parts that sag in the middle or stick out where they shouldn't, the hair that never keeps a curl or never loses it. We begin when we invoke the Tibetan prayer and Teacher Saraha's song of praise. 'Here in this body are the sacred rivers; here are the sun and moon as well as all the pilgrimage places...I have not encountered another temple as blissful as my own body.'
"It will take a bit of doing, learning to love all our personal pilgrimage places. However, before genuine love can flourish, we must finally accept ourselves exactly as we are today. Not tomorrow or next week or when we lose 25 pounds. Remember, acceptance is acknowledging the reality of a situation: that we're heavier than we'd like to be, for example, or that our complexion is ruddy or sallow, or that we've got gray streaks, or that leggings just don't work for us. Most of us think of other women as beauties, never ourselves. But every woman was created by Spirit to be a genuine beauty. We learn how to reveal to the world our unique radiance only after we acknowledge it ourselves. Today, take as your personal mantra:
I am what I am and what I am is wonderful."
Quotes from Simple Abundance: A Daybook of Comfort and Joy
"...a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new." (2 Corinthians 5:17)
6 comments:
I think I have read that book. Can you tell me the author? If it's the one I'm remembering, it made a positive impact on my life.
Terrific thoughts! Staying positive really helps.
Beautiful post, Rebecca! It speaks to the struggle that we all have, I think...i.e., to love ourselves enough, as we are, to feel worthy of the self-care it takes to be our best. I have found it to be not only a critical first step, but also - once it is achieved - overwhelmingly joyful and freeing.
Thanks for stopping by my blog, as well, and for your comment. Happy Easter!
Valerie
That is beautiful! Those are exactly the kind of words I need first thing in the morning! Thank you!
I'm catching up on my reading, and have to tell you how much I loved this post! In fact, I just ordered Simple Abundance from Amazon. Thank you for recommending it.
"I am what I am and what I am is wonderful."
Yes!!
Oh, I love that! "I am what I am and what I am is wonderful." Excellent!!
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