You are enough. 

Let’s make that statement a given. Whatever you are facing today, whatever challenges, whatever insecurities, whatever voices in your head, you are enough. No matter what people say to tear you down, or keep you down, you are enough. 

It’s a great starting point. It’s the best starting point. It opens you up to all the possibilities of growth, change, creativity, healthy relationships, balance, adventure, and everyday tasks done well. 

You are enough. 

With that as a given, how can you be the best version of yourself today? 

That’s a difficult question to answer, and the millions of vehicles on the information highway all have a their own “right” answers to this question, in all its various applications: how can you be the best mother or father today? Or the best partner? How can you be the best cook for your family, or for yourself? How can you be the best working parent? Or the best sexual partner? Or the fittest version of yourself? The most compassionate? The most inspiring? The most self-actualized?

We are multi-faceted individuals, and for each facet we are faced with the question: how can it be all that it can be? And for each question, an information-storm of answers is at our fingertips, thanks to the internet, not to mention our friends’ take on it and what our mom, dad, and grandparents had to say about it growing up (and still do), and our own pastor/yogi/Oprah/mentor has to say about it too. 

That’s it, I quit, I am not enough. 

But I am enough. 

You are enough. 

So where do we start? With the smallest number of things: one.

What is the one thing that I can do today as I aim to be the best father or mother I can be? 

What is the one thing I can change today to be a better partner? 

What is the one thing I can start doing today that will lead to a healthier me? Or to a healthier family? 

We can make a long list of all the ways that we can improve ourselves, all the ways that we are inadequate, feel bad about ourselves, try to do them all at once, fail, and give up, believing that we are not enough. 

Or we can start by believing that we are enough already, and pick one thing to change. 

Maybe it’s one way to be more compassionate. 

Or one way to be more loving with our family.

Or one thing to actively make a dream or goal a reality. 

One thing. The first step to accomplishing anything. 

You don’t need to be all the things. You are enough already. 

But we can grow. One thing, one step at a time, is how we become the best version of ourselves in the long run. My hope is that one day, I can look back and see a whole trail of “one things” that I deliberately chose that have led to the person that I have become.

Jeremy

Beyond Moi

Alan Rickman, Death, Cancer, Beauty, and Hope

Cancer makes me angry.

In large part, because it’s more personal than celebrities dying of cancer for my eldest daughter. For her, cancer is the quiet beast that took her beloved mentor and ballet instructor away from her 9 months ago; the guy she moved across the country for. He was so strong, and yet so gentle; so demanding, and so kind. You wouldn’t dare mess around with him in class, but you felt like you could tell him anything one on one and he would know exactly what to say. Mr Magnus was that kind of strong. Through and through. And at some point, this venomous creature snuck into his bones and slowly destroyed him from the inside out. Once they figured out why he was feeling so tired, it was too late. READ MORE

One Thing

I have this crazy idea. A crazy, wonderful idea. An impossible idea, really. But maybe not quite impossible. I think this crazy idea of mine might just be compelling enough to spark curiosity, bore into the very core of people, burn ember-bright and spread like wildfire. Or it may snuff out the second I strike the match. Like all ideas, the only way to find out if they’ll work or not is to put them to the test.

So I guess this post is a test. It may be the first of many tests.  READ MORE

 

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