I adopted my father’s rage at a young age, and learned to wrestle with the best of them, typically boys, ’cause Father said never hit a girl. Most days, I’d return from school with debris in matted hair and torn stockings. Mother would shake her head, muttering:
“No one will ever love you.”
I heard: you’ll never be good enough for love, so I married a man whose every complaint was prefaced with: If you loved me enough, you would….
It wasn’t until I was thirty-nine and he decided to move on that I declared war on the messages that were influencing my choices.
“I am good enough for love!” I shouted to no one in particular, like a two-year-old throwing a tantrum.
Then someone suggested I lose a few words to make the mantra more empowering.
“I am enough for love!” I tried on for size, deciding that the good was redundant.
Then: “I am enough!” or “I am love!”
and eventually settled on “I am!”
I am is a much lighter loader to carry, and oh, so freeing.
This week think about what you might subtract from your life to free up energy – emotionally, physically, or psychologically. Naturally, creative discretion is yours – this doesn’t need to be a personal subtraction; global issues work too.
To participate, create a post on your own site and link back here. Or leave a comment. Looking forward to all responses.
